News, notes, quick hits and Bear bites as Lenoir-Rhyne football celebrates a Super Region 2 championship and its third straight NCAA Division II playoff victory on Saturday.
—> READ OUR GAME STORY HERE: Lenoir-Rhyne 35, Valdosta State 7
* The Bears (13-1) learned Saturday night their semifinal opponent will be 13-0 Harding, which won Super Region 1 by a narrow 7-6 margin over Grand Valley State. The Bison were held scoreless until late in the fourth quarter, driving 73 yards over a near nine-minute span for the game-winning touchdown.
The D2 playoffs are reseeded once the final four teams are set. Harding and Colorado Mines both came into the playoffs as No. 1 seeds, Mines being ranked No. 1 in the nation in both major polls and Harding No. 3/4.
Lenoir-Rhyne advanced as a No. 4 seed. The other semifinalist is No. 3 seed Kutztown, which will play at Mines.
Lenoir-Rhyne and Harding will kick off at noon. Harding is located in Searcy, Arkansas and plays in the Great American Conference.
* Saturday’s semifinals will be broadcast on ESPN+, which is good news for remote fans as the NCAA live stream through Hudl has been hit-or-miss this post-season. For instance, the stream on Saturday went dark for about 10 minutes during Lenoir-Rhyne’s explosive second quarter, depriving viewers of one of the Bears’ touchdowns in live form. The games cost $10 each.
* Lenoir-Rhyne improved to 11-6 all time in NCAA playoff games. All of the Bears’ NCAA appearances have come since 2012.
Lenoir-Rhyne had been 0-3 in road playoff games before this season. The Bears won at Benedict a week ago and cruised to victory after a bus trip to Georgia on Saturday.
The Hickory school is now 1-2 all-time against Valdosta State. All three meetings have come in the playoffs. Valdosta won by 40 points in 2018, so Saturday provided a measure of satisfaction for that.
* The Bears defense, one of the top stopping units in Division II most of the season, has been especially stingy against the run. Valdosta State only managed two yards on the ground. Lenoir-Rhyne has allowed just 161 rushing yards in its three playoff victories.
Rashad Yelding and Andre Jefferson were responsible for taking Valdosta backwards on several snaps. Yelding, a grad student from Daphne, Ala., had a pair of sacks for 26 negative yards (in addition to an interception and fumble recovery). Jefferson added four tackles for loss, including a sack that put him into the school record books.
Jefferson, a junior from Calumet Park, Illinois, now has 29.5 sacks during his Lenoir-Rhyne career, breaking the old mark of 29 held by Jaquan Arits.
* Hours before the game, we asked Bing AI’s Image Generator to create a digital picture of a large bear wearing a black and red football uniform and towering over a stadium (see the image next to this paragraph). We had no idea the AI would choose the No. 32 for the jersey (we didn’t tell it anything about which number to choose).
Turns out No. 32 is Jefferson’s number. He certainly resembled the image that AI created, towering over a helpless Valdosta offense most of the rainy afternoon. The Blazers averaged 455 yards of total offense this season. Jefferson, Yelding and the rest of the Bears stopping unit held them to 145 on Saturday — with 43 of coming in garbage time late in the fourth quarter.
* Linebacker Jon Ross Maye was one of the Bears’ top tacklers on Saturday, earning five tackles, forcing a fumble and recording two quarterback hurries. Maye, from Johns Creek, Ga., became the first Bear defender to reach 100 tackles in a season since 2018.
* Zayvion Turner-Knox enjoyed a career game, leading a potent Bears rushing attack with 145 yards and two touchdowns. He ripped off an 87-yard TD run as part of a 28-point second quarter, negating a 66-yard punt that had pinned Lenoir-Rhyne deep in its own territory a few plays earlier. Knox, from Charlotte (Hough HS), averaged 9.7 yards per carry.
Turner-Knox and Dwayne McGee (102 yards, 2 TDs) proved a potent combination. McGee, from Kissimmee, Fla., now has 1,531 yards and 12 touchdowns on the season — and more than 4,500 rushing yards for his career.
For the game, the Bears rushed for 307 yards and five touchdowns. Quarterback Sean White (Sarasota, Fla.) found the end zone on a four-yard run.
* Lenoir-Rhyne has scored first in 13 of its 14 games this season. The Bears are 13-0 in those games, an amazing streak.
* Special teams proved special for the Bears. Ben Watson (Newton-Conover HS) blocked a punt, recovered by Malakei Sumner (Hickory HS), that led to Lenoir-Rhyne’s second touchdown. Later in the second quarter, Lenoir-Rhyne covered a Valdosta fumble on a kickoff return.
Bears punter Stewart Simmons (Newton, Fred T. Foard HS) averaged more than 46 yards on eight punts, putting four kicks inside the Blazers’ 20. Jake Brown (Indian Trail, Sun Valley HS) hit all five extra points, no easy feat in the driving rain, which affected a missed field goal early in the second quarter.
