BABSON PARK, Fla.—A balanced effort on offense combined with a stingy defense helped Southeastern pick up its first Mid-South Sun Division win of the season with a 21-0 win over Webber International.
Yardage was hard to come by in the first half with the first six possessions of the game ending in punts. A Warrior turnover gave the Fire the ball in plus territory near midfield, but a fourth-and-one turned into a fourth-and-sixth due to a false start and the Fire turned the ball over on downs.
The Warriors (0-4) missed field goals of 42 and 38 in the second quarter, which opened the door for the Fire (3-2) to put together a nine-play, 78-yard drive that saw
Cooper Jones find
Myles Henderson for a 32-yard TD with 43 seconds until halftime. Webber got the ball to midfield on the ensuing drive, but a pass was picked off by
Joey Chatman at the SEU 39 to end the threat and give the Fire a 7-0 lead at halftime.
"Webber put together a great effort and played hard, but it was really nice to see our kids come together to push each other and encourage each other and really play like a brotherhood and it was nice to see us bounce back," said coach Cesar Rivas.
After forcing a punt on the first possession of the third quarter, SEU put together a 14-play, 85-yard drive that saw
Deshawn Brown race to the end zone from 17 yards out with 4:47 left in the third quarter.
A 12-play drive in the fourth quarter ate up another 7:33 of the second half and was finished with a 14-yard run by
Lorine Parker.
"Our commitment to the run and piecing together drives and pick up first downs and be methodical about it," said Rivas of the ground game. "We didn't get nervous when it was 0-0, we just stuck with the game plan."
With 4:32 left in the game, Chatman recorded his second pick of the game at his own nine-yard line to end a Webber drive. The freshman also nearly had a third interception on the game's final drive in which the Fire had to defend two shots to the end zone from inside the 10-yard line to protect the shutout.
As a team, the Fire racked up 203 rushing yards with Parker going for 99 yards on 27 carries. Quarterback
Cooper Jones was 21-of-35 passing for 207 yards and a touchdown. His top receiver was Henderson with six catches for 75 yards.
Marc Viechec led the defense with 10 tackles including a sack and helped out on another behind the line of scrimmage.
"We bent but we didn't break," said Rivas of the defense. "Our kids stepped up, they broke loose a couple times but we corrected it and created some turnovers."
The Fire will host Ave Maria next Saturday at Victory Field for a 7 p.m. kickoff. Tickets are available at
SEUFire.com/tickets.
