SAC Recaps: Mars Hill, Wingate roll; Lenoir-Rhyne vanquished

The 2023 champs went down. The 2022 runner-up exacted revenge. A 2024 title hopeful kept its foe off the scoreboard for the second year in a row.

Welcome to week six action in the D2 South Atlantic Conference, where Lenoir-Rhyne suffered its first loss of the season, and Wingate & Mars Hill got back to playing football after missing last week due to the hurricane.

South Atlantic Conference Scoreboard | Week 6

• Mars Hill 34, Newberry 9
• Wingate 33, UVA Wise 0
• Emory & Henry 31, Lenoir-Rhyne 20
• Carson-Newman 28, Barton 17
• Anderson at Catawba | Sunday at 2 p.m.

Headlines & Highlights

* If it feels like we’ve haven’t seen much of Mars Hill this season, it’s because we haven’t. The Lions had two bye weeks after their opener on the Thursday before Labor Day, then had last week’s game at Wingate canceled because of Hurricane Helene.

Welcome back! It must have felt good for the Lions to put hurricane woes in the rearview for a day and take out frustrations in a game setting. It was the team’s first win after falling to Delta State and Lenoir-Rhyne in the early going.

Mars Hill lost a nailbiter to Newberry in the 2022 South Atlantic championship game, a game that likely kept the Lions out of the D2 playoffs. Saturday provided a chance to make amends for that defeat as well.

* The Mars Hill defense held Newberry to 198 yards in total offense — and a mere 42 yards rushing — while earning five sacks. Kobe Haynes earned two of the sacks for 24 yards in losses.

Offensively, Mars Hill quarterback JR Martin went 17-of-24 for 215 yards passing and two touchdowns. Simeon Thompson caught a 43-yarder in the first three minutes of the game to set the tone. Malik Laurent hauled in the other TD toss, a 10-yarder in the third quarter.

Martin accounted for all four Mars Hill touchdowns. He found the end zone on a pair of 1-yard runs. Lon Teachey kicked two field goals for the final margin.

Newberry never saw the end zone, getting all of its points on field goals, including a 53-yarder from Bryce Earley.

* Wingate’s defense held UVA Wise to just 70 total yards and sent the Cavaliers backwards in the run game (minus-1 yard). The Bulldogs shut out UVA Wise for the second year in a row and now have four shutouts over the past three seasons.

Brandon Perry scooped up a fumble and ran 46 yards for a touchdown. Dontorian Best made a team-high eight stops. Marquise Fleming recorded 3.5 tackles-for-loss. Kai Russell had a pair of tackles-for-loss. Daniel Morrison and Jaylin Brown each had sacks. David Squires picked off a pass.

* Wingate’s offense made the most of its redzone chances, scoring four times in five visits. Quarterback Brooks Bentley threw a 55-yard touchdown pass to Carlos Estronza and rushed for a score from a yard out. O’Brien Barnett picked up 107 yards on the ground and scored on an eight-yard play.

Kicker Caleb Bonesteel hit field goals from 18 and 22 yards, and made all three PAT attempts.

* Doug Socha suffered his first loss as Lenoir-Rhyne’s head coach after leading the Bears to wins in their first four outings. Lenoir-Rhyne came into the week ranked No. 6 in the nation in the latest D2 coaches poll. The Bears were No. 11 in the D2Football.com media poll.

* The Bears had a seven-game winning streak over Emory & Henry but the teams hadn’t met since 1957.

* Lenoir-Rhyne led 17-7 after a 34-yard DeAree Rogers touchdown catch from Jalen Ferguson in the third period. But the Wasps answered with a field goal and a touchdown to tie the contest 17-17.

Jake Brown nailed a 38-yard field goal to put the Bears back in front with 1:54 left. But Emory & Henry’s Charles Mutter put the Wasps in front for good with a 16-yard TD pass to Cam Abshire with 29 seconds on the clock. Jacob Robinson added an exclamation mark with a 25-yard pick-six in the final seconds.

Lenoir-Rhyne outgained Emory & Henry 369-263 and held the Wasps to only 43 rushing yards. But the win slipped away down the stretch. It was the first regular season loss for Lenoir-Rhyne since last year’s 34-30 nailbiter at Wingate on Oct. 28, a game that also featured back-and-forth scoring plays in the final minutes.

* Barton’s Khavarie Hightower returned the opening kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown, and linebacker Matthew Leach later carried a fumble 80 yards for another score. But it was not enough for the Bulldogs.

Carson-Newman is the last remaining unbeaten team in the conference, improving to 5-0, 3-0 in the SAC (best start since 2007). Barton fell to 2-3, 1-2.

* Dereck Barringer earned SAC defensive player of the year honors this past week after a big game against UVA Wise. He may be in contention again after racking up 16 tackles.

Barringer and the Bulldogs spent much of the afternoon chasing Carson-Newman’s Jayden Sullins, who galloped for 261 yards on 31 carries.

* The Catawba-Anderson game was moved from Saturday to Sunday due to the effects of Hurricane Helene. The venue was switched to Catawba College and will start at 2 p.m.

South Atlantic Conference Standings | After Week 6

Mountain

Piedmont