Redshirt-senior Dre Harris (Greenville) posted a pair of rushing touchdowns on the night as the Newberry College football team (5-2, 4-1 SAC) bested the Indians of Catawba College.
NEWBERRY – Redshirt-senior Dre Harris (Greenville) had a pair of rushing touchdowns on the night as Newberry College (5-2, 4-1 SAC) handed the Indians of Catawba College (4-1, 1-1 SAC) their first football loss of the year at Setzler Field on Saturday, October 16. The Wolves bested the Indians in nearly every statistical category, but the stand-out number was the 80 yards the Wolves held the conference leading rushing attack to.
Catawba was only able to muster 165 yards of offense, most of which came in the first half as the Wolves were able to hold them to under 30 yards on every drive in the second thirty minutes of action. Harris threw for 173 yards on the evening as he was able to complete 11 of his 18 attempts in the contest. Redshirt-senior Bryson Woodruff (Roebuck) would prove to be his favorite target on the evening catching four passes for 45 yards, including a hefty 37-yard pickup.
But it was the ground game that truly sparked the Newberry offense on the evening, an attack that was led by redshirt-sophomore Mario Anderson (Summerville) who finished the evening with 129 yards on the ground, including a 29-yard scamper. Harris was the second leading rusher on the evening for the Scarlet and Gray as he was able to rack up 75 yards on the ground, tallying both the touchdowns for the Wolves on the night.
Newberry was able to open the contest with nearly an eight and half minute drive that lasted 14 plays but ended up with a punt from just inside Catawba territory that gave the Indians offense their first look of the contest. They took advantage of that opportunity and drove 80 yards for the first score of the game to take a 7-0 lead.
It looked like Catawba would drive down the field again, but a big-time sack by redshirt-junior AJ Valentine (Johnston) helped bring their drive to a quick close and give the Wolves possession with a touchback punt to set-up the Wolves on their own 20. Harris completed two big chunk passes to Woodruff and graduate student Bobby Irby (Irmo) that accounted for 59 yards of the drive. Harris then took the ball up the middle himself and scampered in from 15 yards out to pull the Wolves back even at seven point a piece heading into the halftime break.
Newberry would chip away at that yardage with multiple short gain rushes as they sat waiting on the seven yard-line when the quarter flipped to the fourth. Harris wasted no time at the start of the fourth quarter as he took the first play from scrimmage around the right side and dove to the pylon to give the Wolves the 14-7 lead.
Catawba was able to get off a field-goal attempt on their next drive, after only being able to pick up one first-down, but did not get any points out of it as it sailed wide to the left of the uprights. Newberry would nearly mirror that effort on their next drive as they would set up for a 35-yard attempt but theirs two would go wide of the post to the left side.
Valentine led the Newberry defense with seven tackles on the evening, two for loss, as well as adding a sack to his credit. Sophomore Juwan Moye (Lilburn, Ga.) added four tackles in the contest and a sack as well.
The Wolves return to Setzler Field for their Homecoming game as they welcome in the Eagles of Carson-Newman University on Saturday, October 23. Kick-off is currently set for 4:00 p.m.