Lenoir-Rhyne continues to be the highest ranked college football team from the state of North Carolina. And it’s not even close.
The Bears, who began the season inside the top 15, moved up two spots to No. 6 in the latest AFCA D2 Coaches Poll, released Monday. Lenoir-Rhyne slid up one spot to No. 12 in the latest D2Football.com rankings. Wingate is the closest team to the Bears in the rankings, moving in the polls to 24th and 23rd this week.
Lenoir-Rhyne won the South Atlantic Conference last season and played its way into the D2 semifinals and a 13-2 record before falling to eventual national champion Harding.
Doug Socha took over the program in the off-season when Mike Jacobs accepted the Mercer head job (and those Bears are doing well this season also at 3-0 and No. 16 in the FCS coaches poll).
Socha’s first Lenoir-Rhyne squad has wins over Bowie State (32-19) and Tiffin (38-17). Saturday’s triumph over the visiting Tiffin Dragons provided plenty of highlights on both sides of the ball.
Chris Brown returned an interception 68 yards for a touchdown and one play later recovered a fumble created by teammate Christian Santana. Jalen Ferguson threw touchdown passes to Dominique Marshall (23 yards), Aiden Heilmann (2 yards) and Adonis McDaniel (26 yards).
James Ussery halted a Tiffin drive inside the 5-yard line by forcing another fumble. JT Black rumbled 75 yards in the other direction after picking up the loose ball.
Alex Boyd added a short-yardage rushing touchdown, while Jake Brown tacked on a 32-yard field goal for the final margin.
“I thought we created some nice explosive plays offensively,” Socha said after the game. “Our defense played really inspired and opportunistic, and that was great to see. There are still some discipline things we need to clean up but I’m proud of where we’re at.”
Lenoir-Rhyne will start conference play this weekend, going on the road for the first time to Mars Hill. The Bears and Lions, who compete in different divisions within the SAC, haven’t played since 2021. Lenoir-Rhyne won that meeting 31-16.
The Bears have a slight edge in the all-time series, 25-24-1, and have won the last three.
Mars Hill (0-1) has played just once in 2024, idle the past two weekends after losing to Delta State in the opener the Thursday before Labor Day.
