By Mike London

mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Catawba College’s football team no doubt spent time this week working on stopping the run after allowing 399 rushing yards in a 49-14 loss to Davidson College on opening night.

But the challenge for the Indians figures to come through the skies this week.

Catawba (0-1) is on the road again and will take on Shaw University, a Raleigh-based HBCU and Division II CIAA member, at Durham County Memorial Stadium on Saturday at 6 p.m.

Shaw (2-0) did not enter this season touted as a super squad, as it was picked as seventh-best in the 11-team CIAA in a preseason poll of coaches.

When Shaw began the season with a 17-13 home victory against Elizabeth City State, it was a win greeted with yawns from the beach to the mountains, as ECSU was picked 10th in that previously mentioned CIAA preseason poll.

But Shaw had a road triumph last week that made waves. The Bears won 43-40 down in Georgia at Albany State University, a surprising success story that set off fire alarms in the coaching offices of all of Shaw’s future opponents. Shaw made a remarkable rally against a respected program, scoring 27 points in the fourth quarter to pull it out.

Yes, 27.

The catalyst for the comeback victory was a veteran quarterback from the Charlotte area — Christian Peters. He was the QB at Butler High in Matthews in his high school days. He has been at Shaw forever. He’s been on the roster there since 2019, but with the COVID season and redshirts, well, he’s still firing passes.

The 6-foot-2 Peters put together a career outing at Albany State. He had 20 completions in 42 attempts for 322 yards, with five touchdown passes. He also ran for 75 yards and a touchdown. He was the first player in program history to account for six TDs in a game.

In storybook fashion, Peters fired the decisive touchdown pass with just eight seconds left on the clock. For that effort — BOXTOROW, which focuses on HBCU schools – honored him as its national player of the week.

So Catawba will get to take on a national player of the week, as it looks to bounce back from an opening-night performance that was disappointing in some respects. Not every Catawba fan expected to win at Davidson, but it’s fair to say that zero Catawba fans expected to lose 49-14.

Catawba entered the season with lofty internal expectations with many proven returners, plus touted transfer-portal additions. It was a tough situation at Davidson, losing star Bo Pryor to injury while christening a new stadium on the road in front of a hyped-up crowd, but the Indians still expected to perform under the bright lights a lot better than they did.

But that was Week 1. Week 2 could be a completely different story. The scoreboard will be back at 0-0 when this one kicks off.

There’s a chance that the trip to Shaw will produce a classic game. The Massey Ratings give both teams a 50 percent chance of winning. The score projection is Shaw 28, Catawba 27, so technically, the Indians can claim the underdog role.

Shaw and Catawba haven’t locked horns since the Indians won 32-21 in Salisbury in 2010 behind 296 passing yards by quarterback Patrick Dennis.

Catawba won’t play at home until Carson-Newman visits on Sept. 28.