By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

Catawba’s football team suffered a big loss in the South Atlantic Conference standings and an even bigger loss in terms of leadership on Saturday night at Newberry’s Setzler Field.
Catawba fell to the Wolves, 35-14, and senior Mike Sheehan, the starting quarterback for three seasons, broke an ankle with eight minutes left in the second quarter. The Indians (2-3, 2-1 SAC) trailed, 14-7, when Sheehan was injured.
“Just a very tough day for us with injuries,” Catawba coach Curtis Walker said.
Catawba got down early, 6-0, when Newberry blocked a punt and took advantage of a short field, but the Indians weathered that disaster and led 7-6 after Sheehan threw a 7-yard scoring pass to Bruce Smith late in the first quarter and Brennan Lambert added the PAT.
Newberry quarterback Raleigh Yeldell threw the first of his three touchdown passes early in the second quarter, finding Cole Watson, and a two-point conversion put Newberry on top, 14-7.
Catawba had some momentum after linebacker Trey Evans sacked Yeldell on back-to-back plays to force a punt, but with the Indians trying to work their way downfield for a tying score, Sheehan was injured while completing a pass to Smith. Sheehan was having a good day — 8-for-12 for 87 yards — when he went down
“I thought we had the momentum when we lost Mike,” Walker said. “(Backup QB) Reid Carlton came in and he handled things well, operated the offense the best he could, but when you’re trying to play catch-up with a backup quarterback, one of two things can happen. He’s either the hero or it’s a very tough day.”
A sack by linebacker Jamal Lackey and a short Newberry punt gave Catawba ideal field position, but the Indians were stopped at the Newberry 20. Then Lambert’s 37-yard field goal attempt was blocked.
That block gave Newberry the ball near midfield with 3:34 left in the half, and the Wolves (4-1, 2-0 SAC) drove for a pivotal touchdown with 1:12 left in the half. Again Yeldell found Watson for the score, and it was 21-7.
“You hate to talk about a dagger that early, but that touchdown at the end of the half really hurt,” Walker said. “That put us in a tough position, put Reid in a tough position.”
It went from tough to extremely difficult very early in the second half. Yeldell had a 50-yard completion, the Wolves scored quickly, and it was 28-7.
That basically meant Catawba was throwing on every down the rest of the way, and Carlton frequently ran for his life.
Carlton converted a third-and-8 pass to Sam Mobley and led a scoring drive of 59 yards late in the third quarter to make it 28-14.
For a moment it appeared it might be 28-21 when Catawba linebacker Kyle Kitchens picked up what he (and Walker) believed was a loose ball in the backfield, but the play was ruled to be an incomplete pass. Walker said he’s looking forward to seeing that play on film. Potentially, that was a break that could’ve gotten Catawba back in the game.
“I don’t believe that pass was going forward,” Walker said. “To me, it looked to me to be a free ball and a touchdown for Kitchens. That would have given us a lot of momentum.”
There was one more Catawba special-teams mistake when punter Caleb Berry fumbled a snap and was tackled for a 10-yard loss at the Catawba 13. That led to a Newberry score and the 35-14 final.
Carlton finished 8-for-21 for 83 yards. Joseph Dress, last year’s backup QB while Carlton redshirted, took the snaps for the Indians late in the contest.
Cris Page had an interception for the only Catawba takeaway. Catawba forced two fumbles but couldn’t make recoveries.
Yeldell threw for 257 yards, although Catawba did stop him on the ground, and that was the big concern going in. Yeldell rushed 12 times for minus-17 yards and was sacked four times. Kitchens had a sack, a forced fumble and another tackle for loss.
“We did a pretty good job as far as their quarterback running the ball, but we missed a lot of tackles in space,” Walker said. “We didn’t bottle up their receivers on the short passes.”
Now Catawba has to move forward without Sheehan, who has passed for 31 touchdowns and run for 26 TDs in his college career. He also was a calm, intelligent, experienced director of the offense.
“This was a very important loss today because the winner was going to be in the driver’s seat as far as the conference,” Walker said. “But it’s not like our season is over. We won our league with one loss last year, and that could happen again.”