By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Coming off its biggest win of the season, the Catawba football team faces its biggest rival.

The Indians play Lenoir-Rhyne at Moretz Stadium on Saturday at 2 p.m.

The most discouraging aspect of Catawba’s recent struggles have been the Lenoir-Rhyne games. The last four meetings, the scoreboard has gotten a workout. It’s been 62-10, 56-3, 49-3 and 63-21, so the Bears haven’t just been winning, they’ve been hammering the Indians into the ground. Cumulatively, that’s 230 to 37.

The Massey Ratings predict another blowout in the 102nd meeting of the old foes. The score projection is Lenoir-Rhyne 42, Catawba 12.

Catawba is given a slim 3 percent chance of shocking the Bears, the South Atlantic Conference and the world.

Presumably, the Bears (8-1, 6-1) are going to be hungry and angry. They lost for the first time last week, falling 34-30 at Wingate.

The Bears’ vaunted defense made a Division II National Player of the Week out of Wingate’s freshman quarterback Brooks Bentley, who accounted for 372 yards and four TDs.

Despite what happened last week there are a lot of things to admire about the Bears when you look at the national stat sheets. They are good at things you expect the nation’s 15th-ranked team to be good in.

They are plus-10 in turnover differential. They are top 15 nationally in that critical category.

Catawba isn’t bad when it comes to turnovers — plus-2.

Lenoir-Rhyne is in the top 20 in rushing nationally with 213 yards per game.

The Bears are in the top 15 when it comes to blocking kicks, so the Indians have to be sound on special teams. A blocked punt can turn a game around in a hurry.

The Bears are in the top 40 in the nation in racking up sacks.

A couple of things should be noted.

Lenoir-Rhyne had an opportunity to feast on UVA Wise and Erskine, the SAC’s two weakest teams, and that skews the stats some.

While the Bears were annihilating those two teams, Catawba took on Mars Hill, the best team in the Mountain Division, and Emory & Henry, not great, but clearly better than UVA Wise and Erskine.

What the difference in schedule strength means is that Catawba (4-5, 2-5) is somewhat better than the stats look, while Lenoir-Rhyne may not be as powerful as the stats look.

Catawba showed growth last week, and not just because the Indians beat Barton as a 7-point underdog. It was a win achieved by running the ball, which was big. Barton focused its defense on stopping Preston Brown, Bo Pryor and Catawba’s passing game, and the Indians made them pay with massive rushing yardage.

Former North Rowan running back Malcolm Wilson was a huge part of Catawba’s success last week, Whether that becomes a regular thing or not, no one knows, but the Indians now have three running backs they know they can count on.

Lenoir-Rhyne should be favored on Saturday, but it should be a ballgame, not a blowout. Being competitive with the Bears would be another step forward for the Catawba Indians in Tyler Haines’ first season as head coach.

Catawba’s most recent victory in the series was in 2017.

The all-time series is amazingly close. Catawba has won 49 times. Lenoir-Rhyne has won 48. There have been four ties.

As far as the games played in Hickory, it’s 25-25-1.

Catawba wraps the season at Carson-Newman next week.

L-R hopes to be playing in the SAC championship game. The Bears will take on Tusculum if they don’t make the title game.