The Southern Conference's new D1AA league is now four games in and Belmont Abbey is looking strong.

The Crusaders backed up last week's 48-17 defeat of The Citadel with an impressive 34-0 shutout of UNC Chapel Hill. This league, which is designed for school-supported teams or big schools with a D1-level talent pool, looks to be leaning toward this small school with school backing. 

Lander is in a similar situation to that of Belmont Abbey. They lost to North Carolina two weeks ago but came up this week with a 37-14 defeat of Citadel. 

So right now it appears that the small North Carolina school with fewer than 2,000 students is ruling the roost. Belmont Abbey takes a break from conference play to face University of South Carolina next week.

"We continue to focus on being our best," said Belmont Abbey Head Coach Nick Whitrow. "Results are nice but our focus is to work on bringing out the best in the lads. They are all very keen to learn and are picking up the attacking and defensive systems really well. Coach Genaro [Fessia] has added an edge to our defense and it is paying dividends."

Oli Fussell (pictured) at center defended well and was also an attacking threat all night.