LAKELAND, Fla.—The ground game along with a solid defensive effort helped propel Southeastern to its first conference championship since 2018 with a 28-7 win over Florida Memorial.
Southeastern (8-3) finished the season on a five-game win streak and shared the Mid-South Sun Division title with Keiser.
"I'm so happy for our kids and proud of our coaches that got to work the week we really needed to put everything together during that Keiser week," said coach
Cesar Rivas-Sandoval. "We kept building on that and embraced adversity and found a way to get one percent better each day and the kids and coaches did that."
The Fire got to work on their first possession of the game, going right to work after a short punt and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against Florida Memorial to start at the Lions' 38. On the ninth play of the drive,
Cooper Jones connected with
Myles Henderson on 3
rd-and-9 for a 12-yard touchdown pass.
In the second quarter, SEU got a score right before halftime going 73 yards on eight plays in just 1:57 with
Wendell Harris Jr. scoring on a 36-yard touchdown reception on 4
th-and-5 to put the Fire up 14-0 at halftime.
"It was great to see our offense click in that way," said Rivas. "Converting on third down has been a huge area of emphasis."
On the first possession of the third quarter, Southeastern went 65 yards on six plays with Henderson rushing in from seven yards out for his second score of the game. During that drive,
Lorine Parker had three rushes of at least 13 yards on his four carries that drive.
Parker finished with 153 yards on 20 carries, averaging almost eight yards per rush.
The Southeastern defense stood tall, holding the Lions without a score after a turnover late in the third quarter and forced a punt.
With 9:29 to go in the game,
Cooper Jones connected with
Iyan Hinkle for a 29-yard touchdown pass on 3
rd-and-5 to go up 28-0. Florida Memorial took advantage of a short field after an excessive celebration penalty after Hinkle's touchdown and went down the field on seven plays, scoring with 6:13 left. Then, Florida Memorial recovered an onside kick but on first down,
Aaron Walton came up with an interception to end the threat.
"It was amazing and a long time coming," said Hinkle of the conference title. "We knew if we bought in we would do big things."
SEU finished the game 6-of-12 on third down and converted its lone fourth down attempt of the game on Harris' touchdown.
Jones was 12-of-22 passing for 129 yards and three touchdowns. Henderson had a team-high three catches for 34 yards.
On defense,
Marc Viechec and
Frank Williams had 11 and 10 tackles, respectively with Viechec recording two for loss.
