Bulldogs struggled with pass protection as they stumble in home opener to Chapin
Sep. 9—NEWBERRY — Newberry struggled with their pass protection and in the secondary as they fell 27-14 to Chapin in their home opener on Friday night. The Bulldogs welcomed a hot Eagles' offense that averaged 34.6 points per game coming into the Sept.9 match-up.
The Eagles marched right down the field on their first drive, but the Bulldogs' defense held strong near the red zone and only gave up a field goal.
The Bulldogs' offense responded quickly and put together a nice drive. Jamel Howse Jr., sophomore wide receiver, got going early with a wide receiver reverse that looked to be a dead play until he cut the ball back to the opposite side of the field to avoid defenders and turn a negative into a positive 15-yard gain. Their offense continued to march down the field, but starting quarterback Bryce Satterwhite threw his first interception of the night on a pass attempt to the end zone.
The Eagles' offense moved the ball well on their second drive but the Bulldogs' defense held strong near the red zone again. They forced another field goal attempt that resulted in a miss.
The Bulldogs offense struggled the next few drives , which ended with third down sacks on their quarterback in both drives. The offensive line struggled much of night and suffered another injury to a starter. The Eagles offense found a few big plays in the air but was held in check for much of the first half.
After a second field goal make by the Eagles, the Bulldogs finally found the end zone about midway through the second quarter. BJ Jones scored on the ground from three yards out after a 42-yard run from Cole Hutchinson that gave the Bulldogs a nice spark.
The Eagles ran their two-minute offense to perfection late in the first half and starting quarterback Brady Albro found his running back John Rossi wide open for a touchdown.
The third quarter was much of the same for the Bulldogs on offense. Their offensive line didn't give Satterwhite enough time to find receivers and he was under pressure all night. He threw his second interception midway through the third quarter and the Eagles quickly turned it to points.
The Bulldogs' secondary also had trouble stopping the no huddle spread attack of the Eagles. They surrendered well over 275 yards passing and gave up three scores through the air. The young squad found themselves trailing 27-6 in the fourth quarter but found another spark plug in the running game. Cameron Gibson ran the ball well for the Eagles in the second half to help their offense get going.
Howse Jr. got loose late in the ball game for 87-yard touchdown run and finished the game with over 100 yards receiving. Satterwhite was beat up all night and had three interceptions. He also left the game late in the fourth quarter with an injury after taking one of many brutal hits on the night.
"We knew it was gone be tough coming in. We have a couple guys that are no longer with us anymore. So, we kind of just figuring it out as we go. That's gone be the number one thing we look at, 'how can we fix our front?',"said head coach Cedrick Jeter. "We are better than what we showed tonight and we match up with this team every else except upfront. We just got to figure it out."
The Bulldogs drop to 1-2 on the season and return home next Friday to take on Batesburg-Leesville.
The full recap will be available in the print edition of the newspaper on Wednesday, Sept. 13.
Reach Greg Hollis @ 803-768-3117 or on Twitter @TheNBOnews
