HobbsDailyReport.com
HICKORY – Led by a ‘ball hog’ offense and sparked by Nelson Brown with 106 rushing yards and a touchdown on 30 carries, Lenoir-Rhyne University rebounded in style with a 22-10 win over visiting North Greenville (S.C.) on Saturday night.
LRU (1-1) snapped a two-game losing streak in the series, improved to 4-1 at Moretz Stadium against the Crusaders (1-1), and beat them for the sixth time in a nine meetings.
Earlier in the week, Bears head coach Mike Kellar said his players had learned a lot from a 39-point loss in the opening game to West Alabama, and he expected to see a lot of improvement in Saturday’s non-conference game.
BROWN
“In that opening game we ran into a West Alabama team with 26 seniors and 19 returning starters and our young kids’ eyes were a little big,” Kellar said after Saturday’s win. “Tonight, their eyes weren’t big and they came and competed.
“It was a great win but I don’t want everyone to get all crazy with this win… it’s just one game.
“We are still going to have our ups and downs but I think the people of Hickory and Lenoir-Rhyne can see we are putting together something special.”
With North Greenville leading 7-6, the Bears took the lead for good with 35 seconds left in the first quarter when quarterback Jarrod Kellar connected with Jaquay Mitchell on a 5-yard pass to cap a 16-play, 75-yard drive that consumed eight minutes, six seconds.
Brown scored with 4:05 left in the first half on a 5-yard run, and the PAT by Chas Allbaugh gave the Bears a 19-7 lead they still had a halftime.
North Greenville’s Matt Gravely connected on a 52-yard field goal with 2:12 left in the third quarter before Allbaugh rounded out the scoring with a 28-yard field goal for LRU with 4:15 to play.
Along with Brown’s running, the two big storylines for the Bears were their defense and turnovers.
LRU limited North Greenville to 199 yards of offense, the lowest total allowed by the Bears since they checked Carson-Newman on 155 yards on Nov. 2, 2012.
“The defense did a great job not allowing North Greenville’s offense to get into any rhythm,” Mike Kellar said.
LRU held North Greenville to 131 yards in the first half and 68 in the second half. A key to that was the Bears’ ability to control the ball. They held a huge advantage in time of possession — 43:26 to 16:34 – and it was 23:58 to 6:02 in the second half.
North Greenville ran 26 plays in the first half and 17 in the second half compared to the Bears’ 82 offensive plays.
“The best way to keep your opponent’s offense from scoring is to keep them off the field and we did a great job of that the whole night and especially in the second half,” said Mike Kellar.
On nine possessions, North Greenville had just three drives of 25 or more yards.
The other big factor was turnovers.
The Bears — who last season had a minus turnover ratio — had four in the opening loss to West Alabama but forced two turnovers by the Crusaders.
“We took care of the ball tonight and generally good things happen when you do that,” said Mike Kellar. “We took care of it all week in practice, and as a coach that’s the only thing you can go from is what you see in practice.”
Jarrod Kellar was 25 of 33 with two touchdowns and no interceptions for 170 yards.
The Bears travel to Mars Hill on Saturday for a 1 p.m. kickoff in their first South Atlantic Conference (SAC) game of the season.
For a game summary, see earlier post to website.