Wolves Rally For Another Thrilling Conference Win 35-28

Jonah Norris scored the game winning touchdown on a one-yard run with 1:37 left in the game and the Wolves snuffed out a Tusculum drive to end the game as Newberry College won its third consecutive game in the last two minutes with a 35-28 victory in Greeneville, Tenn.

The victory improved the Wolves record to 5-1 overall and 4-1 in the South Atlantic Conference.

Quarterback Reed Charpia posted his second consecutive 300-yard game by completing 25 of 33 passes for 305 yards, Quez Spells had 129 yards rushing on 10 carries including an 84-yard touchdown run and wide receive Keith Desaussure had his second straight 100-yard receiving game with 11 catches for 143 yards and a score.

Charpia completed his final 12 passes of the game for 160 yards and two touchdowns during a stretch that started late in the third quarter through the game winning drive late in the fourth quarter.

After winning on the last play of the game against Lenoir-Rhyne and Wingate, the Wolves had to rally again for a victory.

The Wolves scored on three of their first possessions of the game, including Spells’ long touchdown run, but trailed 14-13 at the half.

The Pioneers scored on their first drive of the third quarter to grab a 21-13 lead with 8:15 left in the third quarter.

But after the Pioneers stopped the Wolves’ next drive, the Newberry defense responded with a stop of their own capped by a quarterback sack by Tre Phillips.

Tyleke Mathis’ 24-yard punt return set the Wolves up at the Pioneer 35-yard line and six plays later Charpia connected with Desaussure on an 8-yard scoring play to cut the lead to 21-20 with 24 seconds left in the third quarter.

The Wolves defense responded again by stopping the Pioneers on third and three on the Tusculum 34-yard line to force a punt.

Newberry drove 66 yards in nine plays with Charpia completing all six of his pass attempts culminating in another 8-yard scoring pass, this one to Rico Dorsey, Jr. with the ensuing two-point pass play to Jonah Norris giving the Wolves a 28-21 lead with 7:53 left in the game.

The Wolves seemed to have the game in hand when they recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff at the Tusculum 13-yard line, but four plays later the Pioneers blocked a 29-yard goal attempt and recovered the all at their own 49-yard line.

The Pioneers then engineered a five-play, 51-yard touchdown drive to tie the game at 28 with 3:40 left in the game.

But for the third consecutive game, Charpia engineered a game winning or game tying drive on the Wolves final possession of regulation, completing all four of his passes for 78 yards including a 24-yard connection with Dorsey and back-to-back completions of 20 and 33 yards to Desaussure to set up Norris’ one-yard touchdown run with 1:37 remaining.

An excellent special teams play pinned the Pioneers at their own 17-yard line on the ensuing kickoff and consecutive quarterback sacks by Jamar Blandin, Jaydon Eason and Jonathan Sexton and Eason and Mason Grier forced a failed desperation pass on fourth down to turn the ball over on downs with 15 seconds left to seal the victory.

Newberry outgained Tusculum 422 to 226.

The Wolves return to play three of their final four regular season games at home starting with Saturday’s Homecoming contest against Mars Hill at 6:00 p.m. at Setzler Field.