WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.—Potential postseason implications are on the line just 4.5 miles from the Atlantic Ocean this evening as a pair of Top 20 NAIA football programs go head-to-head.
Southeastern is in the midst of its best start in its short program history, sitting at 5-0. Keiser is also off to its best start in its even shorter program history.
The Seahawks defeated three Top 25 teams in its first three games of the season, which included No. 8 Reinhardt on September 21
st. Last week, Keiser scored 28 second half points and shutout Warner in the second 30 minutes to pick up a 42-23 win.
The Fire forced six turnovers last week in a 49-7 win at St. Thomas, and won the field position battle due to stellar kickoffs and punts by junior
David Larson, who is now the NAIA leader in punting at 46.2 yards per punt. Larson has placed half of his punts inside the opponent's 20-yard line, and has registered 22 touchbacks on 37 kickoffs.
In addition to the six takeaways, the Fire defense had five sacks which is right around its season average of 4.6 per game, ranking second nationally. Freshmen defensive tackles
Loobert Denelus (1.2 sacks per game) and
Curtis Williams (1.1 sacks per game) rank 10
th and 12
th, respectively in sacks per game in the NAIA.
Cooper Jones is the Mid-South Conference's leading passer at 264.6 yards per game, and has multiple weapons to work with as three players have 300+ all-purpose yards this season.
Southeastern is looking to improve its all-time record of 2-5 against ranked opponents, and gain the lead in the Sun Division, and move up in the rankings.
Kickoff is at 5 p.m. at Keiser's multi-purpose field. It will be the first game under the lights at home in program history.
