Head coach David Bennett said it was the toughest thing his staff was ever forced to do.

The Indians were going to the national Division II playoffs and the coaches had to cut the roster to 52.

Maurice Price wasn’t sure he would be one of the 52. A true freshman, he had played on special teams all season but ...

And then, D.J. McLeod, a linebacker, sprained an ankle on the stairs in his dorm. He couldn’t play.

“We had finally gotten the roster down to 60, then 57, then 54 and then 53,” Bennett said. “We met every morning talking about it. So we were just going to practice to see what we were going to do (about No. 52.)”

Bennett decided on Price, who is one year removed from Butler High School in Charlotte.

He walked over to Price in practice and said, “We’re going to let you dress, big man. Do a great job on special teams.”

Bennett added, “He looked right at me and said, ‘Yes sir, I will.’ And dadgum if he didn’t go out there and get three tackles, a great block on a kickoff return and a knockdown block on a kickoff return. He made five big plays.”

You could say the Price was right for Catawba in its 48-17 win.

WSTP-radioannouncers seemed a bit befuddled. “Who is this Maurice Price?” asked Howard Platt and Wilson Cherry in unison. “We haven’t really noticed him.”

“It just shows he can deliver,” Bennett said.

Price said he wasn’t thinking about being one of the 52 to dress. “I was just trying to go harder in practice,” said this week’s Special Teams Player of the Week. “It makes me want to be more involved because this team is like one heartbeat, one family.”

MANAGERTOSTARTER: Price laughs about how Catawba came to recruit him. In last year’s Shrine Bowl, Price served as a manager. Assistant Chip Hester talked long and hard in the week leading up to the game.

“The last time he called, he said, Coach (Richard) Kent (Catawba’s defensive coordinator) really wanted me to come up there.”

So Lenoir-Rhyne, Winston-Salem State and Guilford took a back seat.

“I liked the atmopshere of the college and the defense was highly-ranked,” Price said. “I liked that.”

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SHHHH: Hester is the receivers coach and he didn’t say much to Ryan Millwood after he dropped a sure touchdown pass from Mitch Ellis in the first half.

“I didn’t talk to him for about two series because he’s harder on himself than anyone,” Hester said. “But Mitch had the confidence to go right back to him.”

And Millwood didn’t drop his next scoring opportunity, grabbing a pass in the endzone to give the Indians a 14-10 halftime lead.

“Millwood has become our big-play guy,” Hester said. “He was mentally tough and bounced back.”

Millwood ended up as Catawba’s leading receiver in the game with five for 58 yards.

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HEMEANSIT: Freshman Nick Means caught four passes for 80 yards against Fort Valley State, including a weaving run after the catch on the game’s first touchdown.

“Hester wasn’t surprised. “At this point, we don’t think of him as a freshman. At Thomasville, he was in the playoffs and pressure situations. Guys like that rise to the occassion.”

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DON’TDOIT: Fort Valley State coach Kent Schoolfield looked on the field and saw Catawba defensive back Darrell Erby standing all 5-foot-9 and said, “That’s the guy we’re going to pick on.”

Bad move, coach.

Little did Schoolfield realize that Erby is going to the Snow Bowl, an all-star game for Division II’s top players. Little did he know Erby was all-South Atlantic Conference.

“They didn’t see much film on him because other teams always threw away from Erby,” Bennett said.

The result were two intercetions for the senior from Rock Hill, S.C.

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THANKS, CRAZIES: Erby said when he looked up in the stands Saturday, he felt like he was back in high school when 12-to-15,000 fans showed regularly for Rock Hill Northwestern games. Bennett was just as enthused about the students painting their faces, waving their pom-poms and chanting, “Mighty, mighty Indians” cheers.

“It was the most people I’ve seen in Shuford Stadium since I’ve been here,” said Bennett, who arrived in 1990. “One guy grabbed me after the game wearing a shirt from when he went here in 1971. Another was wearing a hat from when he was here. There were people I’d never seen before. And then you had Fort Valley’s band and Al Stokes on our P.A. system — what a great atmosphere.”

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THANKSGIVINGWISHES: Bennett has a plan for all Rowan County and Catawba college football fans.

“Eat all the turkey you can on Thursday, eat some leftover sandwiches on Friday and by Saturday, everybody’s going to be stir-crazy. Then, you can drive up to Jefferson City, Tenn.

“It’s Thanksgiving break up there and their students won’t be there. We can have as many fans as they do.”

Catawba’s team will be eating Thanksgiving lunch Thursday at Western Steer in Salisbury.

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RECRUITINGWOES? In most years, Bennett and his staff would be out recruiting. That has been pushed back but as Bennett says, there is a positive.

“If you want to bring a negative into it, we’re not getting out to the schools as we have in the past,” he said. “But our name is getting to those schools, you know? They know why we’re not there. The high school coaches are telling the players, ‘Catawba’s in the national playoffs.’ So through the grapevine, it’s spreading quicker than if we were there.”

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TRIBETIDBITS: Quarterback Mitch Ellis continues to increase his single-season passing mark. He is up to 2,444 after a 263-yard day on 18-of-32 passing. ... Kevin McKenzie has now rushed for 795 yards. ... Millwood leads the receivers with 29 catches with Means and O.J. Lennon with 28. ... DeVonte Peterson’s sack total is up to 17.5. . Steve Peterson is the brother of Nolan Peterson, who was on the team that last defeated Carson-Newman, back in 1996. Peterson scored a touchdown last week against Fort Valley State on a seven-yard run. ... Eric Westbrook, Joe Hilliard and Kevin McKenzie also scored.

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