TIGERVILLE - The Newberry College Wolves' football team fell behind in the first half and couldn't recover, wrapping up the 2014 season with a 34-14 loss to the North Greenville University Crusaders at Younts Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Newberry's season concludes at 5-6, while North Greenville is 6-5.
The Wolves' offense threatened to score on the second drive of the game, but a fourth-and-goal opportunity fell short. Following a defensive stop, Newberry threw interceptions with long Crusader returns.
Similar to Newberry's offensive chances last week, NGU was able to score three times on drives of under 35 yards in the first half. The Wolves were limited to 144 yards of offense in the first half to North Greenville's 220, with two turnovers converted into 10 Crusader points.
The Crusaders pushed the lead to 34-0 on a touchdown on the opening drive of the second half, but the Wolves were then able to limit NGU to 78 yards of offense on the final six drives.
The Wolves' first points of the day came on a 6-yard carry by Braxton Ivery (Florence, S.C.), who carried the ball four times in a wildcat package after a strong punt return by Kevin Miller (Lexington, S.C.). Ivery's dive to the pylon made it a 34-7 game with 6:14 on the clock.
On the hosts' ensuing drive, a snap was fumbled and picked up by Newberry defensive end Terrance Salley (Swansea, S.C.), who ran 52 yards for a defensive touchdown on the scoop-and-score.
Newberry was limited to two drives over 30 yards on the day, with one ending on downs and the other ending on a fumble. The Wolves were 3-of-13 on third downs with 267 total yards.
Dureal Elmore (Abbeville, S.C.) was the Wolves' offensive leader with 10 carries for 77 yards and four receptions for 22 yards. Ivery had seven carries for 51 yards. W.T. Murden (West Columbia, S.C.) completed 13-of-21 passes for 74 yards with an interception and had 15 carries for 27 yards, becoming the third quarterback in school history with 1,000 career rushing yards.
Edmond Robinson (Wadmalaw Island, S.C.) led Newberry with 11 tackles, while A.J. Booker (Spartanburg, S.C.) had nine. Newberry had four tackles for loss with no sacks. Kyle Clark (Beaufort, S.C.) punted six times for an average of 36.5 yards per kick.
