The Lenoir-Rhyne Football Team celebrates its seniors when UNC Pembroke comes to Hickory this weekend. The Bears will look to close out an undefeated regular season at home and put their 12-game winning streak inside Moretz Stadium on the line.
The Bears clinched at least a share of the ninth South Atlantic Conference Championship in program history with last week's 20-13 win over No. 12 Wingate. The championship is the 23rd in the program history, dating back to 1951. LR has also won six championships in the past nine years. LR can claim the title outright with a victory over Catawba next week or a loss by Wingate in either of the next two weeks.
RB
Jaquay Mitchell has been a main reason the Bears emerged with a pair of one-possession victories in the past two weeks. In a 28-20 win at Limestone, the senior ran for a career-high 149 yards on 19 carries and scored a touchdown and added 174 all-purpose yards and a pair of TDs in the Bears win over Wingate. Mitchell earned South Atlantic Conference AstroTurf Offensive Player of the Week honors for his game against the Bulldogs.
On the defensive side, LB
Clayton Horn was the SAC Defensive Player of the Week after registering nine tackles, a sack, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and an interception against the Bulldogs. For Horn, it was the second conference Player of the Week honor in his career.
The Bears will look to duplicate last year's dominant performance when they defeated the Braves 51-3 and scored the first 51 points of the contest. That was the first win for the Bears over UNC Pembroke and it came in the third all-time game between the programs.
Pembroke comes into this contest in search of their first road win in 2019. The Braves are 0-5 outside of Pembroke and this is their fourth straight road game. In the previous three weeks, the Braves have lost by a combined 16 points including two straight by three points. UNCP is giving up 35.2 points per game and 239.6 rushing yards per game.
QB Josh Jones has connected on 61.4 percent of his passes and thrown 13 touchdowns to go with 1,776 yards. On the ground, Josh Sheridan is the team's leading rusher with 563 yards and seven rushing yards.
The Bears were ranked No. 1 in the NCAA's Super Region 2 rankings that were released on Monday. LR jumped defending National Champion Valdosta St. for the top spot. A season ago, LR entered the NCAA Playoffs as the No. 3 seed before knocking out Florida Tech and Wingate on their way to a regional final.
