WISE – After opening the season with two games on the road, the UVA Wise football team will face the Catawba Indians Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. on the Beaty-Richmond Field at Carl Smith Stadium. It will be the South Atlantic Conference opener for both teams.

As it is the first home game of the season, it is also Lelia Maude Richmond Day, in which the school honors the late long-time supporter and official "Number One Fan" of the Cavs.

The game will be streamed live on FloSports, and the link to that and the live stats is listed to the right.

TRAFFIC NOTE - Due to events around the Town of Wise's 100th birthday celebration, (on that day mainly a car show and music festival) East Main Street through downtown Wise will not be accessible on Sept. 21. Fans coming in via US 23 are urged to turn onto West Main Street at the West Main Street red light north of town, turn left on Lake Avenue, follow it to Hurricane Road and turn right, and then turn left onto Darden Drive (VA 646) to reach the campus. GPS may try to route you via Tacoma Mountain Road, but that is a narrow steep and winding road.

JUST THE FACTS
- The Highland Cavs enter the contest with a 1-1 record after last week's 28-0 shutout of Concord. Prior to that their last shutout win was a 48-0 victory over Union Commonwealth University (formerly Union College) in the 2023 season opener. The last shutout of a NCAA Division II team by the Cavs was a 17-0 win over Mountain East Conference foe Urbana on October 6, 2018. The head coach of Urbana that day? Tyler Haines, who is now the head coach at Catawba.
- UVA Wise has a 2-0 record all-time vs. Catawba. The last time the two met was on Nov. 6, 2021, with the Cavs winning 30-7 in Salisbury.
- The Cavs enter today's contest with a 148-194 all-time record. They are 54-73 at Beaty-Richmond Field, their home since Sept. 11, 1999. They are 21-12 in home openers and 14-11 in their home openers at Carl Smith Stadium. They are 0-5 in their SAC opening games and 1-4 in the SAC home opener.
- The Cavs' overall stat averages are a little skewed because of the ETSU game, but they come into Saturday's game averaging 268 yards of offense and 14.0 points a contest. Of that total average, 88.0 is from rushing and 180.0 is from passing. They are controlling the time of possession by a 32:30 to 27:31 margin and are 4-5 in scoring in the red zone, all touchdowns. The defense has three sacks on the season totaling 20 yards.
- Jalen Pickens leads the defense with 13 total tackles, 11 of them solo. Brub Hines III has nine tackles and an interception. Nasir Spruill and Emmanuel Scott have combined for 16 tackles (eight apiece) and all three sacks.
- Jake Corkren comes into Saturday having thrown 35-63 for 335 yards with three touchdowns and one interception.
- The Cavs' running game has combined for an average of 88 yards a game with Ian Scammell leading the way with 22 carries for 65 yards. Dejauvis Dozier has 19 carries for 47 yards and Zavier Lomax has rushed for 44 yards off of 18 carries.
- The receiving corps has combined for 180 yards and three touchdowns. Dorien Goddard leads the squad with 12 catches for 83 yards. DJ Powell has seven receptions for 97 yards, while Seth Fischbach has caught six passes for 68 yards and a touchdown.
- Saturday's game is the home debut of UVA Wise head coach Gary Bass, who took over the role last December. In an ironic bit of scheduling, he faces his alma mater for the first time as a coach. He played 32 games at Catawba as an offensive lineman from 2002-2005.

SCOUTING CATAWBA
- The team's nickname is officially "Catawba Indians" per an agreement with the Catawba nation. The school and the tribe (which has a really nice cultural center on tribal land near the SAC main office in Rock Hill, South Carolina) request that you refrain from using just the nickname "Indians" when referring to Catawba athletic teams.
- Head coach Tyler Haines is in his second season at Catawba and enters the game with a 6-7 record. He has experience with UVA Wise as he as the head coach at MEC rival Urbana from 2015 to when the school closed down in mid-2020. He is 0-4 all-time against the Cavs.
- The Catawba Indians are led by reigning WePlayed Sports SAC Offensive Player of the Week Preston Brown. Last week Brown was 24-29 for 295 yards with five touchdowns and zero interceptions in the team's 37-28 win at Shaw. He also had 11 straight completions, a new school record. For the season he has 46 completions for 476 yards and six touchdowns.
- Quece Williams has 22 carries while LJ Turner leads the team in rushing yards with 140.
- Kobe Christian has 12 catches for 132 yards, while Jordan Mitchell has two TD receptions.
- Deno Wardlow leads the defense with 20 tackles.
- The last time Catawba played in Wise, the Cavs' defense forced three turnovers and limited Catawba to 197 total yards as UVA Wise won their first-ever SAC victory with the 21-14 win on Nov. 9, 2019.