LAKELAND, Fla.—A takeaway on the first play from scrimmage and a touchdown on the second play helped set the tone for a 34-6 win over Warner in front of 2,411 fans on Homecoming night.
Trenton Surloff ripped the ball away from Tyler Bailey on the first play of the game to set up a 12-yard touchdown pass from
Cooper Jones to
Myles Henderson to give the Fire the lead just 28 seconds into the game.
"Our guys have been talking the last few weeks about trying to start faster on both sides of the football and it was nice to start great on the first play with defense, then better on the first play with the offense," said coach
Cesar Rivas-Sandoval. "Our kids have really owned it and our leadership has done a nice job after we came off a really physical game last week."
Tristan Connell added a 36-yard field goal to stretch the advantage to 10 at the 9:52 mark of the first. On the third possession of the game for the Fire, they went on a 15-play, 63-yard drive that ate up 6:36 and ended with a
Lorine Parker seven-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second quarter to go up 17-0.
Parker, along with the rest of the ground game was a major catalyst for SEU on offense. Parker led the way with 165 yards on 25 carries and helped the team amass 272 rushing yards on 52 attempts.
"Our offensive line was unbelievable tonight," said Coach Rivas. "We subbed guys out and it didn't really matter, they played really well cohesively. We've been trying to get them to keep working well together no matter which five were in."
Special teams added a couple of big plays with a 50-yard punt by
Jonah Paulsgrove to pin the Royals at their own 1-yard line. When it came time for Warner to punt following a three-and-out, the snap was mishandled and fumbled and was recovered in the end zone by
Jeff Ysma to put the Fire up 24-0 at halftime.
The Fire opened the third quarter with a 14-play, 60-yard drive that took up the first 8:03 of the second half and resulted in Connell's second field goal of the game, this time from 32 yards out.
Warner got on the board with 11:47 to play after recovering an SEU fumble with a 38-yard touchdown pass, but the two-point conversion failed.
With 7:00 remaining, Jones connected with
Iyan Hinkle for his second TD pass of the game to finish an eight-play, 65-yard drive that chewed up 4:47.
Wendell Harris was the top target for Jones with four catches for 40 yards.
The Fire defense limited Warner to just seven first downs and 161 yards on 46 plays.
Southeastern will travel to unbeaten St. Thomas on Friday for a 6 p.m. kickoff.
