Like Catawba, Newberry’s nickname is the Indians.
Like Catawba, Newberry starts a redshirt freshman at quarterback.
But that may be all Catawba and Newberry have in common heading into today’s 1:30 kickoff at Shuford Stadium.
Catawba (4-0, 2-0) is ranked sixth in Division II, second in the South Region and has won big South Atlantic Conference road games each of the past two Saturdays.
Newberry (3-1, 0-1) arrives in Salisbury with a pretty record, but it has been built with the aid of a schedule friendlier than the Welcome Wagon lady.
Newberry’s victories have come at the expense of the “Three Amigos” — North Greenville, Edward Waters and West Virginia Wesleyan. That generous threesome contributes mightily to everyone’s statsheet and has a combined win total of zero. Newberry trounced that not-so-torrid trio, 128-17.
Newberry’s not bad at all, but looks to be a second-division team in a league loaded from top to bottom. The SAC is tougher than rawhide this year, already an impressive 16-4 against outside teams. PC is the only SACteam below .500 overall and the Blue Hose are obviously a quality squad.
The jury, however, is still out on Newberry, whose league debut was a seemingly respectable 23-10 road loss at Mars Hill. The tell-tale stat from that game, though, is that the South Carolina version of the Indians accumulated zero rushing yards against the Mountain Lions. If Newberry couldn’t gain a few feet against the Lions, its ground attack will likely get completely wrecking-balled by Catawba.
In four games, teams have tried to run against the Tribe 99 times. Those ill-advised forays have netted a pathetic 86 yards. It doesn’t take a math major to figure out if you can’t throw the ball against Catawba, you may as well run up a white flag.
Still, Newberry amassed enough stats in its blowouts to bring impressive numbers to town. Despite the Mars Hill mauling, Newberry’s averaging 236.3 yards rushing per game, second in the SAC, and leads the league in scoring at 35 ppg.
Those lofty numbers aren’t lost on Catawba coach David Bennett, who’s a master at ferreting out any and all sources of motivation.
“Newberry’s the top scoring team in the league, so I’d say that’s a pretty good challenge for our defense,” said Bennett.
But probably no more of a challenge than last season when Catawba, which has beaten Newberry four straight, blanked its fellow Indians 28-0.
Still, this one could be entertaining. There are lots of things to watch closely.
Like that Catawba offense that’s now directed by young Luke Samples. It’s still figuring out exactly what it can and can’t do.
There’s Newberry’s old-school coach Mike Taylor, whom Bennett calls “one of my favorites.” Taylor will have his boys revved up to try to stop Catawba’s strings of 20 straight regular-season wins and 14 consecutive regular-season SAC wins.
Then there’s Newberry defensive coordinator Allen Brown, a legend in his coaching days at Thomasville High. He’ll be trying to slow down one of his former players, Nick Means, Catawba’s top receiver.
The good news for Catawba fans is that their guys aren’t likely to take the visitors lightly. Every favored coach in America has reminded his team about what happened in Chapel Hill last Saturday.
The message from that one comes through loud and clear. On any given Saturday, most anything can happen.
Just don’t expect anything strange to happen today. Catawba’s too good.
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Contact Mike London at 704-797-4259 or mlondon@salisburypost.com
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