GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Lenoir-Rhyne quarterback Sean White passed for 305 yards and five touchdowns to lead the Bears to its 10th South Atlantic Conference championship with a 48-7 win over Tusculum University Saturday at Pioneer Field.
The Bears (10-1, 8-1 SAC) amassed 497 total offensive yards while limiting Tusculum (6-5, 6-3 SAC) to a season-low 156 yards. LR finished the game with 29 first downs while holding TU to five including just one in the first half as the Bears led 20-0 at the intermission.
Lenoir-Rhyne, who is ranked 15th in the nation in the AFCA Division II Coaches Poll and 13th in the D2Football.com Media Poll, all but clinches a home game in next week's NCAA II Super Region 2 Playoffs. The Bears entered the week ranked fourth in the Super Region 2 Poll.
Lenoir-Rhyne ran 83 total plays and held onto the ball for 41:35 while Tusculum ran 55 plays and had 18:25 of possession time.
White went 19-of-30 and also rushed for 23 yards as he was named the SAC Championship Game Most Valuable Player. Songa Yates made four receptions for 100 yards and three touchdowns, while Tate O'Bryan tallied a pair of touchdowns on his two catches which totaled 34 yards.
LR running back Zayvion Turner-Knox led all players with 69 yards on 11 carries including a touchdown.
Tusculum quarterback Matthew Palazzo was held to 61 yards of total offense including 54 yards on 9-of-20 passing. Brayden Phillips came off the bench after Palazzo was injured in the second half as went 4-of-14 for 60 yards including a seven-yard TD pass to Kemani Brown late in the fourth quarter to avoid TU's first home shutout since 2005.
Tusculum senior linebacker Wesley Scott led all players with his season-high 14 tackles and wraps up his collegiate career with 304 total stops (including two seasons at Keiser University). Earnest Johnson added nine tackles and a sack, while Jordan Taylor and Dajavon White accounted for six tackles apiece.
Senior Ryan Dolce posted a game-high three pass break-ups, giving him 12 on the year which are tied for the 10th most in TU single-season.
The Pioneers committed two turnovers while the TU defense did not record a takeaway for the game. Tusculum fumbled on the second play of the game as LR's James Ussery recovered the ball at the TU 35. The Tusculum defense held at the 21-yard line and forced a Jake Brown 38-yard field goal but his kick went wide right.
Tusculum would go three plays and out as LR took over at their own 44. Four plays later White completed the first of three TD passes to Yates, this one from 44-yards out. Brown's kick made it a 7-0 game at the 7:17 mark of the quarter.
Palazzo would be sacked for the only time of the game for a six-yard loss. He followed with a 15-yard bullet pass to Ethan Stinnett to set up third down and one. But an incomplete pass followed by no gain on a Palazzo quarterback keeper turned the ball over on downs to the Bears at the TU 44.
Dwayne McGee rushed for a 14-yard gain to the TU 30 and eight plays later, Turner-Knox would plunge in from one-yard away to extend the lead to 14-0 with 1:54 to go in the first quarter.
Early the second quarter, the momentum looked to swing for the Pioneers when Stewart Simmons punt was blocked by Daryl Smith and went out of bounds at the LR 45. But the Pioneers would turn the ball over on down after a six-yard gain and three incomplete passes.
The Bears would add a score late in the half as Yates hauled in a 33-yard touchdown with 55 seconds left in the period. Brown's extra point hit the right up-right as LR took a 20-0 lead into the locker room.
LR took the opening possession of the second half and went 78 yards on seven plays culminated by White's 31-yard touchdown pass to O'Bryan to extend the lead to 27-0.
The Bears added another score late in the third period and added two more touchdowns in the final period to secure its first SAC title since 2019 and avenge a spring 2021 loss to the Pioneers who won its third SAC Championship on LR's home field.
Tusculum punter Nicholas Pope averaged 38.0 yards on his eight punts including three inside the 20 with a 50-yarder. Simmons averaged 34.7 yards on his three punts.
The Pioneers end the year with back-to-back winning seasons and have posted a winning campaign in three of the last four years. Tusculum captured its second SAC Mountain Division title.
Tusculum honored its 23 seniors in pregame ceremonies prior to Saturday's championship contest.
