LAKE WALES, Fla.—The loss two years ago at Legion Field was a tough one to handle for the Southeastern football team.
The Fire had its chances, but were unable to stop the Webber ground game in a 28-21 loss.
In 2016, the Fire flipped the script. Southeastern amassed 330 rushing yards, and held the Warriors to just 150 total in a 24-0 win to claim The Sun Conference championship.
"Our guys played the kind of game that they should play in a conference championship game," said coach
Keith Barefield. "It was very tough, very physical, and overcame some difficulties and made adjustments."
Jarrell Reynolds got the Fire started with a 33-yard touchdown run on 3
rd-and-1 with 2:51 left in the first quarter. Reynolds rushed for 141 yards on 27 carries to lead the ground game.
The Fire extended their lead to 14 on a reverse, rushing in from nine yards out to cap off a seven play, 34-yard drive, which was helped by a key 15-yard reception by
Tony Parnell along the left sideline.
Webber's best opportunity to score came in the final two minutes of the first half, when it drove down to the SEU 4-yard line. The Fire defense held the Warriors, and on fourth down, tried a fake field goal which was stopped for a loss.
In the third quarter, the Warriors had a 10-play drive that started back at their own 10-yard line, advancing to the Southeastern 43, but the drive stalled out.
With 8:45 left in the fourth quarter, the Fire added a
Caleb Winter 29-yard field goal to cap off a 15-play, 6:46 drive. They put the game away on a 54-yard touchdown run by
Chris Bryant, who was also over the century mark with 103 yards on nine carries.
"Sometimes you have to impose your will. We talked about that at halftime, we probably tried to throw the ball a little too much in the wind," said Barefield. "They're a physical team and if we have any hopes of playing past the regular season, we're going to face a lot of physical teams in a lot of difficult conditions."
The Warriors were held to just 14 first downs, and were only 2-of-12 on third down.
"I feel in the past few weeks, we've put all the pieces together and are playing well," said junior linebacker
Will Tillo of the defense. "Our line has done a great job with our safties eliminating the run game, our corners have been lockdown, and you can't ask for a better team."
Southeastern will have a week off before hosting Valley City State on November 10
th.
