By Ronnie Gallagher
rgallagher@salisburypost.com
Both of Salisbury’s college football teams will try to begin a climb out of last place in their conferences this afternoon.
Both Catawba and Livingstone hit the road. Catawba (0-3, 3-3) travels to Tusculum (0-3, 1-5) in South Atlantic Conference action, while Livingstone (0-4, 0-7) goes to Broughton High School in Raleigh to face Saint Augustine’s (2-2, 2-5) in the CIAA.
Both kickoffs are scheduled for 2 p.m.
–
Catawba and Tusculum used to play for playoff seedings. But both have yet to live up to expectations.
“They’re feeling a lot like us right now,” Catawba coach Chip Hester said. “They can’t get it all together either.”
The Indians actually played well at Carson-Newman last week before losing 41-31.
“It’s very frustrating,” Hester said. “No one’s happy right now. The human nature thing to do is point fingers and blame this and blame that. But that’s not going to make things better. So we have to find solutions. We’ve got to look in the mirror and see what we can do better.”
The injury bug has hit Catawba with Terrence Jones (concussion), Jumal Rolle (turf toe), Kewone Harris (hamstring), Julian Samolu (ankle), Cam Sexton (concussion) and Zane Gibson (knee) hurting. Defensive lineman Marqus Davis is already out with an ACL tear.
“Somebody’s got to put it together,” Hester said. “I hope it’s us.”
–
Livingstone hasn’t had much success against the Falcons. Their record against Saint Augustine’s is 3-11-2. You have to go back to 2002 when the Blue Bears won 12-7. The other two victories came in 1926 and 1927.
Steven Williams has become one of the CIAA’s top offensive threats over the past two weeks, but the running game and defense has faltered.
Livingstone is coming off a three-game homestand where they lost all three.