Staff report

SALISBURY — Catawba won the Mayor’s Cup with a 55-15 win against Livingstone on Saturday.

Catawba stayed unbeaten all-time against the Blue Bears — 16-0 — behind a record-setting effort by quarterback Preston Brown, who threw six touchdown passes, with no interceptions.

Catawba (2-0) threw for 372 yards, all by Brown, and also rushed for 218 yards.

That’s nearly 600 yards of offense. Livingstone (0-2) had 274 yards and won the turnover battle 2-1.

Jordan Mitchell had six catches for 136 yards for the Indians, while Bo Pryor had five catches for 108. Connor McCarthy had a touchdown catch.

LJ Turner had 101 rushing yards. Marquece Williams had a rushing TD.

The highlight for Livingstone was freshman back JyMikaah Wells, a local product who rushed nine times for 77 yards and scored his first college touchdown.

Catawba’s defense held Livingstone to 2-for-13 on third-down conversions. That got Catawba’s back on the field quickly.

Jayden Hinton had nine tackles for the Indians.

 Livingstone actually led 2-0 early on a safety.

Brown’s first TD pass went to Mitchell and gave the Indians a 7-2 lead.

Brown threw TD passes to Pryor and Mitchell in the second quarter.

Livingstone got a touchdown on a pass from Kameron Howard to Matthew Henry late in the first half, and the Blue Bears were only down 21-9 at the break.

Catawba’s defense — and Brown — took charge in the third quarter. After Brown hit Pryor, McCarthy and Mitchell for scores, Catawba led comfortably 41-9.

After a Livingstone fumble recovery on a sack, Wells scored his touchdown for the Blue Bears to make it 41-15, but Williams finished a Catawba scoring drive with a 3-yard TD run, and Turner broke a 70-yard run for the final score of the night.

The 55 points were the most points scored in a game by Catawba since the Tusculum game in 2018. Catawba topped 500 yards of offense for the first time since the Limestone game in 2018.

Catawba snapped a seven-game home losing streak and will prepare for a h0me game next Saturday at 6 p.m. against Mars Hill on First Responder/Military Appreciation Night.

Livingstone will play Virginia Union at home at 6 p.m.