Presbyterian Wins Eighth Straight SAC Game With 24-13 Victory Over Lenoir-Rhyne
CLINTON, S.C. – Presbyterian scored 21 points in the first 17 minutes of the game and never looked back as they defeated Lenoir-Rhyne 24-13 to acquire its 8th consecutive South Atlantic Conference victory.
The 20th-ranked Blue Hose, who have now won seven straight against the Bears, improve to 3-2 (1-0) on the 2006 campaign, while L-R falls to 2-3 (0-1).
Justin Durant had one of the best days of his career in the contest, finishing the L-R victory with 158 yards receiving on just four catches. Durant finished the game with two touchdowns.
The Blue Hose started off strong in the game, taking advantage of winning the coin toss to garner the game’s first points on their first drive.
The opening drive was unique in that the Blue Hose used two quarterbacks. Grayson Mullins started his second consecutive contest for PC, but Mitch Doolittle came in to change the pace. This style of swapping quarterbacks would remain consistent throughout the rest of the game.
In fact, the two quarterbacks combined for 188 yards (97 Mullins, 91 Doolittle) passing in the victory.
In the end on the first drive though it was Chetyuane Reeder who found paydirt, netting his first touchdown run of the year on a two-yard run to place the Blue Hose ahead 7-0 after a successful Carl Stevenson extra point attempt.
It would not take long for PC to add more points to the scoreboard. On Lenoir-Rhyne’s inaugural play of the contest, PC’s Kevin Molony intercepted L-R starting quarterback Justin Sander’s first pass attempt at the PC 42-yard line to give the Blue Hose excellent field position.
The PC offensive attack was able to pick up another touchdown on their first play after the interception when Grayson Mullins found a striding Justin Durant for a 58-yard touchdown with 7:27 still left in the first quarter. The touchdown pass was the first of Mullins’ intercollegiate career and after Stevenson’s extra point proved to be the game-winner.
The 58-yard touchdown pass from Mullins to Durant was the longest of the season thus far for Presbyterian.
The first quarter ended with the Blue Hose up 14-0, but it would not take long for them to tack on seven more as Doolittle threw his second touchdown pass of the season to Justin Durant with almost two minutes off the game clock in the second quarter. The 53-yard touchdown pass from Doolittle to Durant earned the Blue Hose a 21-0 lead.
The Blue Hose finally surrendered their first points of the game in the latter minutes of the second quarter after giving the Bears stellar field position on a fumble at their own 23-yard line.
Justin Sanders found Pete Goodman for a 20-yard touchdown. The Bears’ Andrew Coln missed the extra-point attempt, leaving the score at 21-6 going into halftime.
Neither team would place points on the scoreboard in the third quarter, but Lenoir-Rhyne picked up their final points with 11:32 left in the final quarter on 23-yard pass from Sanders to Dontez Simmons. The touchdown made the score 21-13.
The Bears would not get any closer, but the Blue Hose did manage to get more confidence in their kicking game later in the quarter, as Carl Stevenson nailed 20-yard kick for his first field goal of the season and the Blue Hose’s first field goal since the West Georgia game on Aug. 26.
Sherman Burnett led the Blue Hose defensively in the win, finishing with 10 total stops.
Presbyterian continues its SAC title defense next week as it welcomes Wingate to Bailey Memorial Stadium for its homecoming game on Saturday, Oct. 7. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m.