The No. 10/11 Lenoir-Rhyne Football Team would reclaim the Bishops’ Trophy and move to 8-0 with a two-touchdown victory over Newberry on the road on Saturday afternoon, 24-10 The Bears ended a two-game losing streak to Newberry and held the Wolves to just 42 yards passing and 216 total yards. Newberry becomes the seventh opponent this year that LR has held to 10 or less points.

For the eighth straight game, the Bears scored first. LR got the ball and used a long DeAree Rogers kick return to set up a chip-shot field goal from Jake Brown to make it 3-0. On the Bears next possession, Jalen Ferguson hit Rogers for a 31-yard strike to make it 10-0 LR and that’s how the first quarter would end.

Newberry would strike in the second quarter on a 13-yard run from Keith Desaussure to pull the Wolves within three at 10-7.  The Wolves drew even at 10 with a short 22-yard field goal to cap a 12-play, 63-yard drive with just over three minutes left in the first half.

After forcing a 3-and-out on Newberry’s first offensive possession of the second half, LR marched 60 yards culminating in Rogers’ second TD grab of the game this one spanned 37 yards to put LR up 17-10. A big sack by Andre Jefferson on a fourth down in LR’s territory gave the Bears a big stop. The next LR possession resulted in a 3-yard touchdown plunge from Zyheir Dillard.

Another Newberry fourth down attempt in LR territory, 4th and 1, was broken up by James Ussery. LR would then run out the next 8:41 and possess the ball the rest of the game to salt away the victory. Ferguson finished the game with 269 yards passing and completed 21 of 27 passes with a pair of touchdowns.

Rogers had four grabs for 97 yards and his two scores. Three LR running backs rushed for over 45 yards, led by 57 yards on 13 carries from Zayvion Turner-Knox. Jon Ross Maye had a team-high nine tackles, with eight coming in the first half. Percy King had seven stops and Jefferson and Zeke Nance each had a sack.

Ferguson’s first half INT ended a streak of 104 attempts without throwing a pick in his career. LR and Newberry have been playing for the Bishops Trophy every year since 1987 and the Bears hold a 20-17 edge in the series.

This was the 90th all-time meeting between LR and Newberry with LR holding the all-time series by a count of 48-35-7. The Bears are 55-12 when they play in games where they are nationally ranked.

LR is now 84-12 since the start of 2010 when they score first. The Bears move to 76-23 against the SAC since 2010. The Wolves hit on just 9 of 18 passes for 42 yards and they averaged just 4.1 yards per play.

The Bears improve to 8-0 overall and 6-0 in the South Atlantic Conference. LR will return to action next Saturday when they travel to Wingate for a 2 p.m. contest.