By Mike London

mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — With 25 seconds left at Shuford Stadium on Saturday, Carson-Newman’s Andrew Bradshaw, grandson of a Catawba College Hall of Famer, made the snap and Bennett Smith kicked the decisive extra point, as the Eagles pulled out a 35-34 win against the Indians.

It was an ironic ending to a classic South Atlantic Conference game played in front of 1,921 fans, the Indians’ much anticipated first home game of the season.

Catawba came from behind four times to tie and finally took the lead, but Carson-Newman calmly answered with its fiercest drive of the day under pressure and won the game.

From a Catawba perspective, the game was decided by an injury to quarterback Preston Brown late in the third quarter. Brown was the best player on the field. He threw for 239 yards and had three touchdown passes.

Catawba (1-3, 0-2) threw nine times but had zero passing yards in the fourth quarter, so Brown’s absence was keenly felt.

Dealing with the brutal storm that devastated western North Carolina, Carson-Newman (4-0, 2-0) had a tough time making the trip and was six hours behind schedule when players arrived at their hotel at midnight as Friday was turning into Saturday. Power was out at their hotel and was not restored during their stay, but they didn’t allow that adversity to affect their effort level.

The Eagles also faced the adversity of being led by their third quarterback. Zane Whitson, that third QB,  guided the winning drive and was one of the heroes for the visitors. He only threw 11 passes, but three of those 11 went for touchdowns. That’s old-school Carson-Newman football. If the Eagles put it in the air, they want it be a surprise, with 11 guys worried about stopping the run, and they want the result to be a big play.

Carson-Newman went up 7-0. Brown threw a TD pass to Jordan Mitchell for 7-7.

Carson-Newman went ahead 14-7. Brown threw a touchdown pass to tight end Kobe Christian to tie.

Down 21-14, Brown struck again. This time Deuce Linder was on the receiving end of a strike, and Bryson Sims’ third PAT made it 21-all. That was the halftime score.

Carson-Newman forged its fourth lead at 28-21. This time Catawba answered on the ground for 28-all. LJ Turner, who had 88 rushing yards for the Indians, got the touchdown from the 2.

Catawba’s defense, which got 10 tackles from Dru Dotter and two of its five sacks from Kyiev Bennermon, made adjustments for the second half, began controlling a Carson-Newman running game that ranked fifth in D-II coming in, and got three straight stops in the third and fourth quarters.

Without Brown, Catawba wasn’t able to finish any drives, but backup QB Hunter Sheppard, who had a 15-yard run, directed the Indians into field goal range twice. While Catawba couldn’t get the TD that would have put the game away, Sims connected on field goals for leads of 31-28, and then 34-28.

Sims’ 40-yard field goal that made it 34-28 came with only 3:22 remaining, and after a Carson-Newman penalty on the kickoff, the Eagles were starting on their 16-yard line. Catawba’s win probability had to be in the neighborhood of 80 percent at that point.

But there was no panic from the Eagles. They had all three of their timeouts in their pockets and continued to run the ball relentlessly. They got their ground game rolling at the worst possible time for Catawba, and mostly with wide pitches to the running backs, they executed 8 yards at a time and got out of bounds when they needed to. Their clutch, 13-play drive included only one pass, but it was a key one.

Jayden Sullens finished the powerful drive from the 2-yard line, with 25 seconds to spare for 34-all. Then the Eagles’ snap-hold-kick unit executed for the 35th point.

Bradshaw, a Carson graduate who has been Carson-Newman’s starting long snapper for four seasons, is the grandson of Reid Bradshaw, who was a star lineman at Catawba in the 1960s and was head coach of South Rowan football in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Carson-Newman is scheduled to take on Barton next.

Catawba is scheduled for a 2 p.m. home game against Anderson.