TIGERVILLE – Redshirt freshman quarterback Colton Bailey provided a much-needed second half offensive spark for the Newberry offense, but the Wolves were unable to overcome a 10-0 deficit and fell 17-7 in the 2019 season opener at North Greenville.
 
Bailey, in his first collegiate action, took over with the Wolves (0-1) trailing 10-0 with 7:51 remaining in the third quarter after Newberry had managed four punts, a missed field goal, and an interception on its first six possessions.
 
The Inman native calmly engineered a 9-play, 75-yard drive that took 3:19 off the clock and ended on a beautiful 14-yard completion to Tylik Johnson tiptoeing the sideline in the end zone. Bailey rushed four times on the drive, including a critical 3-yard gain on 4th and 1 that saw that diminutive quarterback's second effort plunge him across the line to gain on the left side of the formation.
 
The touchdown cut North Greenville's lead to 10-7, which the Crusaders extended to 17-7 with 9:29 remaining with a 21-yard completion from London Johnson to Kyle Belack. Newberry then embarked on a strange, penalty-laden drive that took over seven minutes and 15 plays but gained just 31 yards.
 
Newberry penetrated as far as the North Greenville 29-yard line on the drive before a series of penalties pushed the Wolves all the way back to the 44, where a desperate pass on 4th and 24 fell incomplete.
 
The Wolves had all three timeouts remaining, but a 9-yard rush on 3rd and 5 gave North Greenville a first down and allowed the hosts to run out the clock.
 
The Newberry defense was valiant in defeat. North Greenville's 28-yard second quarter field goal came after an interception and subsequent penalty gave the Crusaders a 1st and 10 at the Newberry 14-yard line. The first touchdown the Wolves allowed came on a well-blocked 87-yard zone-read option pitch.
 
Ty Kelly amassed five tackles and two sacks on the evening and made a home in the Crusaders' backfield despite not being officially credited with a quarterback hurry. Keito Jordon's 6-yard sack, in which he tackled the quarterback with one arm, left him three shy of Joe Blue for 10th in school history in tackles for loss with 22.5 for his career.
 
Darryl Foster led the Wolves with nine tackles, matching his career best, and a tackle for loss, while Marcus Chestnut chipped in a career-high eight tackles with a stop behind the line of scrimmage.
 
Bobby Irby led the wolves in both rushing (35 yards) and receiving (44 yards) on the night. Dre Harris completed 14 of his 20 passes for 124 yards, while Bailey went 7-for-12 for 51 yards and a score.
 
Both teams were heavily penalized, racking up 12 infractions each and both amassing over 100 penalty yards. North Greenville held a 370-287 edge in total yardage and a 2.0-yard advantage in yards per play.
 
The win gave North Greenville four victories over Newberry in the 16 total meetings between the two programs, all of which have come in the last seven matchups. It also dropped Newberry to 6-3 in season openers against NCAA Division II competition in head coach Todd Knight's tenure.
 
Newberry opens the home portion of its schedule next Saturday, Sept. 14, with a 1:00 p.m. game against Florida Tech.