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Bears fortunate to have trio of quarterbacks

Lenoir-Rhyne next plays Saturday in West Virginia

By GARY OLINGER

Record Sports Correspondent

Published: September 2, 2009

HICKORY - In the past two seasons, due to injuries, Lenoir-Rhyne University has been forced at times to search for a quarterback.

Now, L-R seems to have found three of them.

Senior Justin Sanders started in Saturday night's 21-14, season-opening win over Shorter College.

Sophomore Major Herron, who missed the opener due to an injury, is expected back this week. Redshirt freshman Reuben Haynes led the Bears in rushing with 75 yards on eight carries even though he played only in the fourth quarter Saturday.

"We've got a guy in Justin who can throw pretty well and run pretty well," L-R head coach Fred Goldsmith said at a media luncheon Tuesday. "Major has very quick feet, then you have Reuben, who is faster than both of them.

"All of them have a little uniqueness to them, but all of them can run this (option) offense."

L-R faces somewhat of a dilemma about who will play quarterback — and how much — when the Bears visit Concord University on Saturday night at Athens, W. Va.

"That's a good problem," Goldsmith said. "We'll just see how it develops.

"Haynes is also a very important factor to us as a slotback."

Whoever is the quarterback, Goldsmith hopes for better statistics than last week's three completions and three interceptions in 14 attempts.

"I was not pleased with our passing game," Goldsmith said. "I thought our passing game was going to show a tremendous amount of improvement this year."

L-R will be facing a Concord team that has been revamped by new head coach Mike Kellar. The Mountain Lions, winless in six meetings with the Bears, won 63-10 at Southern Virginia last week.

Concord's defensive coordinator is Brian Hill, an assistant coach at L-R for the past seven years.

"I love Brian to death, but I hope they go 10-1," Goldsmith joked.