Staff report

SALISBURY — Catawba will play a football game  home on Sunday.

Yes, Sunday.

The Anderson Trojans will visit Kirkland Field at Shuford Stadium at 2 p.m. Gates will open at noon.

Anderson originally had homecoming festivities planned for this weekend, but Hurricane Helene brought serious challenges for the South Carolina community.

Anderson is about as far west as you can go in South Carolina and is two hours due south of Asheville, one of the areas that sustained the most crushing damage from Helene. Anderson was struck hard by the killer storm that brought torrential rain and flooding as it was making its way up from Florida and Georgia.

Many trees and power lines went down in Anderson, and there still are impassable roads due to debris. Communications, water and electricity have been disrupted.

So the Indians are getting an unexpected home game.

While a football game seems insignificant with so many lives lost or turned upside down in the past week, the teams and their fans will look forward to the distraction of sports for a few hours.

Anderson (2-2, 0-2) has been a factor in South Atlantic Conference athletics for a while, but is brand new to football.

The new program debuted with victories over St. Andrews and LaGrange, but things got tougher when SAC play started — a blowout defeat against  Limestone and a two-TD loss to Barton last week.

Catawba will be expected to beat Anderson and was a 19-point favorite, according to the Massey ratings, even when the game was scheduled to be played at Anderson.

Catawba (1-3, 0-2) can use a victory after two close, draining losses on back-to-back weeks at UVA Wise and at home against Carson-Newman.

Catawba lost quarterback Preston Brown to an injury late in the third quarter last week. He has supplied a high percentage of the Indians’ offense, so that’s a concern.

Playing on a Sunday, Catawba probably won’t get its normal radio coverage from WSAT, which is committed to broadcasting Carolina Panthers NFL games.