LAKELAND, Fla.—Despite being shorthanded, the Southeastern University football team improved to 7-0 on Homecoming night all-time with a 43-10 victory over St. Thomas.
Two takeaways by the Fire defense and a bad snap on a punt set up a big night for the offense.
On the second play of the game,
Curtis Williams recovered a fumble to set the Fire up at the Bobcats' 46-yard line. Seven plays later,
Drew Holder connected on his first field goal of the season from 45 yards out.
The Fire took over at the St. Thomas 24 following the snap over punter Billy McConnell's head. That set up a
Cooper Jones QB sneak for a touchdown to make it 10-0.
With 10:33 left in the second, Jones connected with
Brandon Collins for a 19-yard touchdown pass to put the Fire up 17.
Jones finished 16-of-20 for 278 yards with three touchdowns.
"I was pleased with the effort and energy," said coach
Cesar Rivas-Sandoval. "We had a next-man-up mentality, guys were playing in so many facets of the game and in new places and the guys took coaching. It wasn't perfect, but it didn't need to be because they had great attitude, effort, and energy."
In the second half, the big plays started to hit for both teams with Jones finding
Wendell Harris Jr. for a 57-yard touchdown pass, then an 89-yard TD pass just 90 seconds later to put Southeastern up 30.
Harris totaled 151 yards on four catches. In his previous four games, Harris had 182 yards and two scores.
"We knew there was a possibility we could start slow, but we needed to stick with the game plan," said Rivas-Sandoval. "We knew we had the ability to play well on defense to keep us in the game early and eventually it was going to work."
The Bobcats used a 14-play drive to get their first points of the game on a 30-yard field goal, but the Fire answered right back on their next offensive snap when
Lorine Parker went 77 yards for his first touchdown run of the season.
The run put Parker over 1,000 rushing yards during his time at Southeastern.
Robert Armes broke a 28-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter to make it 37-10, but
Bryan Bell answered with a 58-yard touchdown run to give him 2,000 career rushing yards.
Parker finished with 82 yards on 12 carries and Bell with 90 on nine carries.
Deshawn Brown added 45 yards on 11 carries.
In addition to the takeaways, the Fire defense limited the Bobcats to 252 total yards on 66 plays. In his first start,
Carlos Burke had seven tackles with one for loss.
Cory Rahman and
Aaron Walton also had seven each.
Eddie Graham added five tackles with one for loss and three pass breakups, and held St. Thomas's leading receiver John Israel Cooper to one catch for -4 yards.
"He's a special kid that's been battling injuries, and the sky is the limit for that kid," said Rivas-Sandoval."
The Fire return to action next Saturday against Warner University in Winter Haven.
