WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.—Four turnovers resulted in 14 Keiser points in a 42-29 win over Southeastern Saturday night in a battle between unbeaten Top 25 programs.
No. 12 Southeastern (5-1) turned the ball over for the first time on an interception on the first drive by Kade Glenn at the Keiser 36, which set up the first of three Marques Burgess touchdown runs to take a 7-0 lead.
With 1:56 left in the first,
David Larson connected on his first of three field goals on the day, hitting from 32 yards out.
The Fire defense got a takeaway of its own on the next possession when
Nnamdi Umeakuana came up with a forced fumble on a quarterback keeper and
Cory Rahman jumped on top of it. Eight plays later,
Bryan Bell ran the ball into the end zone from six yards out for his first rushing touchdown of the season to give the Fire the lead.
The lead grew to nine on a
Cooper Jones 9-yard touchdown pass to
Eugene Witherspoon with 7:46 left in the second. Witherspoon had seven receptions for 79 yards.
A 15-play, 75-yard drive that chewed up 6:45 of the second quarter got the Seahawks back within two following a 2-yard TD run by Burgess. The Seahawks had a chance to go to the locker room with the lead after the first of three interceptions by Sage Chen-Young, but the ensuing 44-yard field goal on the next play with two seconds left in the half was wide left.
On SEU's first possession of the second half following a 3-and-out by Keiser, Jones connected with
Jacob McCrary for a 36-yard touchdown to push the lead back to nine at 23-14. McCrary led the way for the Fire with 122 receiving yards on four catches.
The Seahawks then answered with a 49-yard touchdown pass to get back within two, After having 1
st and Goal at the four, the Fire settled for a 20-yard field goal to take a 26-21 lead with 5:43 left in the third.
Again, Keiser put together a long scoring drive in response, going 75 yards on 12 plays in 4:25 with Matthews getting his second TD pass of the game.
That's when the game took a hard turn in favor of the hosts, as Chen-Young picked off Jones and took it to the 2-yard line, leading to another Burgess touchdown run to give Keiser the lead.
"We felt like we didn't need to play a perfect game but we couldn't commit as many turnovers as we did a year ago," said coach
Keith Barefield. "We were hoping to overcome that tonight, but didn't. There were things we could have done better and didn't, but you have to tip your cap to Keiser because they created them and took advantage of them."
Jones was intercepted again on the next drive, but Keiser was held off the scoreboard, despite having the ball at the seven for first and goal.
The Fire marched all the way down to the Keiser 3 from its own 1, but a sack on third down forced SEU to take a 29-yard field goal.
Keiser put the game away with a 66-yard touchdown pass to Carlos Silenciuex on the next possession.
Southeastern returns home next Saturday to host Warner at 7 p.m.
