VIDEO: Ken Sparks interview
VIDEO: Eric Cain interview
VIDEO: De'Andre Thomas interview
NEWBERRY, S.C. –No. 24 Carson-Newman (6-3, 4-2 SAC) saw Newberry (5-5, 3-5 SAC) pounce out to a 33-14 first quarter lead and never look back in a 46-21 loss Saturday afternoon at Setzler Field. The loss eliminates Carson-Newman from playoff contention.
The blows came early and often for the Eagles as Carson-Newman sputtered out of the gates with a three-and-out and an interception that set up short fields for the Wolves.
"You name it and it happened," Carson-Newman head football coach Ken Sparks said. "Kickoff return, punt return, roughing the punter, missed tackles – anything that you want to describe just about, we did it."
Newberry led 19-0 before the Eagles garnered their first first down thanks to a trio of touchdown passes from Raleigh Yeldell, who connected with Byron Dickerson twice and Wesley Jordan once.
The Eagles were able to counter with a 12-play, 75-yard drive that ended with De'Andre Thomas (Milledgeville, Ga) skating into the end zone from five yards out on an option keeper around the right side.
However, that gave way to back-to-back kickoff returns for touchdowns. Dickerson weaved his way 88 yards through traffic to get into the end zone, while Carson-Newman's Lonnie Williams (Philadelphia, Pa.) used a juke move on Newberry kicker Kyle Clark to dart 95 yards for a score.
The teams weren't done pillaging the end zone until Yeldell found paydirt from eight yards away to close out the glut of first quarter scoring.
Carson-Newman started to rally drawing within 12 on a second quarter Andy Hibbett (Corryton, Tenn.) score. However, the Eagles wasted several opportunities to put points on the board following Hibbett's score.
Ben Ogle (Greeneville, Tenn.) missed a 24-yard field goal in the latter stages of the first half. Then, in the third quarter, the Eagles drove the ball inside the Wolves' five twice only to throw an interception and fail to convert on a fourth down.
"When we get close there at the end of the half where we could have made it a five-point game we didn't, and then come out at the start of the second half and we down there twice and get no points. We just never did get over the hump," Sparks said. "It seemed like about the time we get close we get out that old pistol and start shooting ourselves again. I don't know. We're a sorry-coached football team. That's the only way I know to say it. We can't get the response we really want at times and it has to be the coaching.
"It has to be on me--the motivation. We have some great kids, so it's on me. We just didn't get it done and sometimes I wasn't sure how bad we really wanted to get it done. We couldn't make the play when we needed to make a play."
Hibbett tallied his eighth consecutive 100-yard rushing performance, building on his school record for consecutive 100-yard contests. He finished with 109 yards on 14 carries and a score. Thomas led the Eagles with 131 yards on 24 carries.
Eric Cain led the charge defensively for C-N with a career high 13 tackles and three tackles for loss.
Dureal Elmore collected 114 yards on the ground for the Wolves.
The Eagles close out their season Nov. 10 against Wingate on senior day at Burke-Tarr Stadium. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m., pregame coverage on the Eagle Sports Network begins at noon with the AEC Tailgate Show on Joy 620 (WRJZ-AM, Knoxville) and online at cneagles.com/live.
