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Catawba and Presbyterian had played 49 minutes of a college football game Saturday afternoon, yet there was an almost eerie silence in the Shuford Stadium bleachers.
Presbyterian had just scored, which to many of the 3,172 fans, was amazing. But even more amazing was that Catawba led just 13-6.
Forty-nine minutes and only 13 points? From the sixth-ranked, Division IIteam in the country? From a team that averages 45 points per contest?
The fans didn’t know whether to be mad or upset. They settled for confused.
By this time, most had realized that Presbyterian had a solid game plan and that instead of winning in a rout, Catawba needed to simply escape.
And to their credit, the offensive linemen had realized this too.
“We got upset with the way we were playing,” said center Scott Faw.
“At the end, it fell on us,” smiled All-American Don Moore. “We knew what we had to do.”
“It was one-on-one with the guy in front of us,” said burly tight end Mark Sintich.
And what was in front of them? An entire season that could go up in smoke if the offense didn’t produce — and now.
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By this time, offensive coordinator Jamie Snider had seen the writing on the wall. And it read, “Forget the long pass plays. Run the ball, baby.
“Here’s what you’ve got,” Snider said. “Four senior (offensive linemen). A senior quarterback (Mitch Ellis). A senior fullback (Joe Hilliard). A senior tailback (Kevin McKenzie). If you can’t get it done with those guys, you aren’t going to get it done.”
As the clock ticked toward the 10-minute mark, he defense gave the ball back to the offense on their own 42. Everyone in that stadium was on the edge of their seats, including the smattering of Blue Hose fans who realized, hey, we have momentum. We can win this game.
And then, on first down, Ellis handed off to McKenzie.
The play was designed to go to the left. But he cut it back over the middle, past Faw and Ben “Hamburger” Hepler. He zigged. He zagged. And 43 yards later, he was downed on the Presbyterian 15.
“Smiley,” as McKenzie is fondly called, strutted over toward the student cheering section, waving his arms toward the Catawba Crazies. They responded just as the offensive line had done.
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That one play changed everything and the Indians knew it. Hilliard blasted his way up the middle and finally Ellis gave Catawba some breathing room at 20-6 by diving over. Better late than never, Catawba’s offense had found itself. Another quick score made it to 27-6, rendering a late Blue Hose touchdown meaningless.
“Smiley found a crease,” grinned Snider, “and well, you know what happens when he gets a crease.”
McKenzie, a pro prospect, finished with 131 yards on 21 carries and he acted like a pro when he reached the huddle to start the series.
“Everybody’s like, ‘Let’s go. We gotta make it happen.’ Itold them to calm down. Just calm down,” McKenzie said. “I heard my play called ... and it was off to the races. The offensive line gave me the hole I needed.”
The line was deliriously happy.
“It’s an awesome feeling,” said Moore, holding one of the game balls. “We bust our butts hoping for a big play. Those running backs make us look good a lot of times.”
Hepler, who turned down a scholarship to Harvard and Yale to spend four years in Salisbury, chuckled about the line outsmarting the offensive coordinator.
“Coach Snider had told us the series before we wouldn’t win with a long pass or long run,” Hepler said. “He said we’d have to do it a little bit at a time. We proved him wrong. We came right out and broke one.”
And about McKenzie’s run? “He makes us look good,” Hepler said.
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Moore and Hepler are typical offensive linemen. They always talk about somebody else making them look good. But on this day, the offensive line took center-stage.
Sintich not only helped block for the backs to gobble up 241 yards on the ground, he also scored Catawba’s first touchdown.
On the Blue Hose 20, Ellis called an audible and Sintich’s eyes began blazing, thinking of what was about to happen — and what had happened in the past.
“My redshirt freshman year, we had scored 17 points against Presbyterian and I dropped a pass in the end zone. We didn’t score again and they won (24-17).”
Sintich couldn’t help but think that as he took off. He also thought about head coach David Bennett, whose alma mater is Presbyterian. He had to get it done.
Sintich had man-to-man coverage. “If I get outside of him and he’s on my hip, he’s beaten,” Sintich explained. “Mitch put it right on the money, the offensive line blocked just enough — it was a whole team effort.”
It was also a Mark Sintich touchdown.
“That was a sweet victory for me,” he said with a sheepish grin. “I’m not going to drop anymore. ”
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Catawba almost dropped the ball Saturday.
Bennett told the team afterward that it was due to a bit of satisfaction over the ranking, the easy wins, the press clippings ...
“We got a little lackadasical,” admitted Moore. “We got a little overconfident.”
“This is a position we needed to be in,” said Snider. “We haven’t had to play a full 60 minutes and we came close to playing all 60 today. We needed that as much as anything.”
McKenzie said the week of practice leading up to the game was anything but Bennett-like. And they will find out what Bennett-like means this week when they run and run and run and run.
“We’ll learn something from this, for sure,” Smiley said.
What McKenzie and 3,000 fans learned Saturday afternoon was this: When it’s crunch time, put the game in the hands of the big boys up front.
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Ronnie Gallagher is the sports editor of the Post.
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Ronnie