Football: Behind big nights from Feit and Fox, Newman Catholic earns first win of the season at Cornell

It took a while for the Newman Catholic football team to earn their first win of the season. Both in general and, specifically, on Friday night. In a battle that took nearly 3 hours to complete, the Cardinals beat Cornell 47-38 in a game broadcast on Wausau Area Sports.

The Cardinals got their offense going behind sophomore running back Eli Feit and senior quarterback Michael Fox. On the first drive of the game, Fox ran 12 yards to the Cornell 6 on a 4th and 1 play to set up a 6 yard Fox TD run to give Newman their first lead of the season at 8-0 following a two-point conversion pass from Fox to Joe Radtke with 7:45 left in the 1st quarter. Cornell would respond with a 7 play, 50 yard scoring drive that finished with a lateral to receiver Spencer Schwingle and pass back to quarterback Bryce DeJongh that went for a 22 yard touchdown and it was 8-8 after the two-point conversion.

That set up a wild, high scoring 1st quarter. The Cardinals would regain the lead quickly as, two plays later, Fox would hit Feit down the left hand side for a 55 yard touchdown pass and the Cards led 14-8 with 5:20 to go in the 1st quarter. After the Newman defense got a stop, the offense continued it's roll. Again on the 2nd play of the drive, Feit would rush 45 yards for the touchdown to extend the advantage to 21-8. Cornell would get the ball and DeJongh would take it around the right end from 23 yards out to make it 21-14 with 1:19 left in the 1st quarter.

However, the first quarter scoring wasn't done yet. Feit would start the next series with a 31 yard rush to the Cornell 9 yard line. Then, for the third straight drive, the Cardinals would score on their 2nd play of the drive as Fox took it in from the 9 for the score that ended the quick 13 second drive and put Newman up 27-14 after one quarter.

In the second quarter both offenses were stifled early with penalties on a night where the yellow hankies would get grass stained from over use. Cornell would convert a 4th and 13 situation from the Newman 31 to set up the next score midway through the quarter. DeJongh continued his big night with a 16 yard touchdown run with 6:25 left in the half and pull Cornell within 27-22.

Newman would get the offense going again on the next series as Michael Fox started the drive with runs of 8, 6, and 8 yards to the Cornell 23. Following a penalty, Fox added 14 yards to give Newman a 1st and goal from the 9. Three plays later, on 4th and goal, Michael Fox hit Jacob Fox for the conversion and touchdown with :43 left in the half and Newman led 33-22 at the intermission.

The Cardinals recoved a fumbled punt with 1:23 to go in the 3rd quarter and would score on the next play as Eli Feit took it 20 yards to the end zone to put Newman up 39-22. Cornell would move into scoring position on a 27 yard run by DeJongh on the final play of the 3rd quarter to put the ball at the Newman 14. On the second play of the 4th quarter DeJongh would get away from the pressure and run into the end zone from the 12 and make it 41-30 Newman with 11:06 left in the game.

Eli Feit would again step up for Newman on the next drive. Feit would score his fourth touchdown of the night, and third on the ground, from 42 yards out to put the Cardinals up by 17 at 41-30. However, Cornell wouldn't go away as DeJongh ran 32 yards to the end zone for yet another score to make it 47-38 with 8:32 left. Newman wouldn't score on the next series but was able to keep possession of the ball for more than six minutes on a drive that had a long TD run by Feit called back by one of the handful on penalities in the series.

Cornell would drive nearly 60 yards in the final two minutes but fumbled at the Newman 1 and the Cardinals secured the 47-38 victory. Feit would finish with 22 rushes for 243 yards and 3 TD's and added another TD on his 55 yard reception. Fox was 6 of 10 passing for 107 yards and 2 TD's and added 78 yards rushing as well. DeJongh finished with 25 carries for 211 yards and 4 TD's and added 106 yards passing for Cornell.

Newman Catholic will travel to Athens next Friday for their next game and you can watch it live on Wausau Area Sports starting with the pregame at 6:40 pm and kickoff at 7.