Cleaning out the Catawba notebook ...

Catawba’s senior receiver Ryan Millwood was telling his coach David Bennett what it was like in the locker room after Delta State’s 20-14 mudslinging victory over the Indians in the second round of the Division IIplayoffs.

“Ryan said, ‘When you see lineman like Ben Hepler, weighing 320, and Don Moore, weighing 310, with tears dropping out of their eyes, I had to get out of there.”

It was a devastating loss that finished Catawba’s season at 11-1. And now, for the rest of their lives, these players will be asking themselves, “What if the sun was out and it was dry?”

Bennett was asking himself that all day Sunday. He helped out at a pancake supper at his church and proceeded to the store for paper plates, where he ran into former Lenoir-Rhyne basketball star Larry Lentz.

Lentz told Bennett that when his team was knocked out of the playoffs, he didn’t get over it for a month.

Bennett tried to keep a stiff upper lip but it was hard. His parents took it hard. His wife kept crying. And then, little son Jeb asked if the Bennetts were going to their usual Sunday night supper with the coaches and their families.

Bennett remembers, “My wife told him, ‘Jeb, we’re not playing football again,’ and she started crying.”

Bennett let her.

“There are things that make you think, ‘We oughta still be playing,’” he said. “What if our field was a little nicer and what if it hadn’t rained?

Catawba is predominantly a passing team and Delta State was giving up 260 per game.

“But the only way to throw the ball was at the beginning of each half,” Bennett said, “because the ball would get waterlogged.”

On the first play of the second half, it appeared Catawba had struck. Ellis tossed long to Nick Means, whose jersey was being tugged at. He pulled away and the ball landed in the breadbasket. Means couldn’t hold on. And that was about it for the passing game.

“You couldn’t get a grip on the ball to throw it so our guys did what they could to run the ball,” Bennett said. “But with (quarterback) Mitch (Ellis’)knee in the shape it was, it was hard running the option.”

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MEMORIES: Bennett said the game reminded him of the 1995 game at Lenoir-Rhyne, which ripped the field up so badly, the school had to redo the entire field.

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FIELDPROBLEMS: Bennett brought up the rain and mud during the Virginia-Virginia Tech and Mississippi State-Ole Miss games. But those Division Ischools have more money to take care of their fields than a D-IIschool. “We’ve just got a field that’s been here forever,” Bennett sighed.

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WOUNDEDKNEE: If you thought Ellis was a warrior during the playoffs, just wait until you hear this.

Ellis, the former North Rowan High star, played the two games with a partially-torn anterior cruciate ligament. Catawba had been saying it was a twisted knee.

“A lot of people didn’t know it and we didn’t want it to be known,” said Bennett.“But that’s a credit to him and his toughness and heart.”

Bennett explained that there are three bands holding the ligament together. Two of Ellis’ are torn away. He finished his senior year 134-of-234 for 1,939 yards.

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ALL-STARS: DeVonte Peterson and Radell Lockhart, both 6-4, 285-pound defensive ends, will play in the Cactus Bowl in Kingsville, Texas. The Division IIall-star game used to be in Fargo at the Snow Bowl.

Peterson may have another invitation.

NFLscouts pick the players for the annual Hula Bowl and Peterson is on the list to play. Sort of. “They told me they’re taking six defensive ends and DeVonte is No. 7,” Bennett said. “He’s an alternate.”

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ALL-AMERICANS: They were preseason All-Americans and now, they’re postseason All-Americans. Peterson and Moore, an offensive lineman, were named to the Division IIAll-American team last week.

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SORRY: Bennett said something Lockhart did after the Delta State game told a lot about this team. “He went up to DeVonte and told him, ‘I’m sorry. We wanted you to play again.’”

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HITTHEWEIGHTROOM: One of the guys Bennett will be counting on next year is true freshman Khanis Hubbard.

“We’re going to put Khanis a bed down in the weight room and let him get big,” Bennett grinned.

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LEADERS:Kevin McKenzie finally went over 1,000 yards for the season by rushing for 66 yards in the muck Saturday. He finished with 1,035 yards and more importantly, averaged five yards per carry.

In receiving, Cedric Squirewell’s late flurry of pass receptions put him into a tie with Nick Means for the team lead with 43 catches.

They were almost identical twins in other stats as well. Squirewell had 656 yards and Means 639. Means’ longest catch was 56 and Squirewell’s 47. And each scored five touchdowns.

Preston Lewis had the best per-catch average at 19.6.

Matt Gross finished as the team’s leading scorer. The kicker had 75 points on 12 field goals and 39 extra points.

Defensively, Todd McComb had 105 tackles in 12 games. Shawn McBride, Lockhart and Shawn Sanders had 77, 75 and 73 stops.

Lockhart had 10 sacks to lead the Indians. A total of 50 different Indians made tackles.

Anthony Spencer had five interceptions. Dyran Peake and Corey Reese each had three.

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ANDFINALLY ... The loss Saturday hurt much more than the one last year at Carson-Newman.

“This year, there were higher expectations,” Bennett said. “Last year, we were still sniffing everything out. But these guys thought they were going to win the national championship.”

Then, Bennett was asked to be very honest. What would have happened if there had ben a dry field Saturday.

“I think we’d be preparing to play a football game this Saturday,” he said.