MONTGOMERY, Ala.—Southeastern had 12 plays of 15 or more yards and racked up 560 yards of total offense in a 54-27 win over Faulkner on Saturday to conclude the regular season with an 8-1 record.
The Fire defense chipped in with three takeaways including a 48-yard interception returned by
Nnamdi Umeakuana for a score with 2:25 left in the second quarter to give the Fire a 40-13 halftime lead.
After Faulkner scored on its opening drive, the Fire responded with the next 21 points of the contest.
"We had a lot of big plays, but would have liked a little more consistency up and down the field," said coach
Keith Barefield. "When you're in a situation down 7-0 and had a few people missing on defense, we knew we needed to score points on offense and our offense came through in a big way."
Cooper Jones threw three of his four touchdown passes in the first quarter, finding
Eugene Witherspoon on a 20-yard touchdown, then
Evan Beal on a 21-yard toss, then
Marquavis Myers on a 67-yarder.
Jones finished 17-of-30 for 285 yards and was intercepted once.
On the fourth play of the second half, Beal connected with
Bryan Bell for a 34-yard touchdown pass to help the Fire go up by 34.
"We practed it a little bit at the beginning of the week and it didn't really go so well because I wasn't warmed up, so I made sure to get some throws in on the sideline," said Beal.
Beal also had two catches for 27 yards.
The Eagles scored the next two touchdowns of the game to get within 20, but on the ensuing drive, a 71-yard run by Bell set up a six-yard
Connor Curry TD run to ice the game with 1:29 left.
Bell finished with 197 scrimmage yards, rushing for 130. He also had a team-high six catches, going for 67 yards.
On defense,
Tyrail Davis and Christian Smith each had seven tackles to lead the team.
Phillip Smith and
Loobert Denelus each had two for loss.
Tez Watts and
Chris Thompson also had interceptions.
"A lot of that goes to the pressure our front put on the quarterback, forced them into some situations where they made some bad decisions, and our guys were right there to make the play," said Barefield.
The Fire will wait until November 17
th to find out if it will receive a spot in the 16-team NAIA Football Championship Series.
"I thought we made a good case today," said Barefield of the team's playoff opportunity. "We did our best, so we will leave that up to the raters, and hopefully we will have a spot in the playoffs and get to continue playing."
