LAKELAND, Fla.—The Fire were held to just six first downs in the second half, all coming late in the fourth quarter in a 40-14 loss to Keiser.
Southeastern led the contest 14-10 at halftime thanks to a pair of Nick Scalera touchdown receptions from
Kaylan Wiggins and the defense's ability to contain the Keiser run game.
In the second half, the Seahawks rushed for 181 yards on 28 carries and scored 30 unanswered touchdowns points to come away with the win.
"We just made too many mistakes; we couldn't sustain drives, we turned the ball over and got worn out on defense and started giving up some chunk yardage," said coach
Adam Waugh of the second half. "The first half was good enough to win the game and thought we could build some momentum on that but couldn't sustain it."
Keiser regained the lead on the first play of the fourth quarter on the first of three touchdown runs by Jaden Meizinger to go up 19-14 after the two-point conversion failed. Southeastern fumbled on its next play from scrimmage, which set up Marques Burgess's second touchdown run of the game.
Burgess finished with 191 yards on 35 carries. Meizinger added 80 yards on 12 attempts.
Down 12 with 7:45 left in the contest, the Fire drove down to the Keiser 8-yard line aided by three penalties, but a second fumble was returned by Keiser to the 2-yard line of Southeastern, setting up another score by Meizinger.
Wiggins finished 18-of-27 passing for 237 yards with two touchdowns.
Desi Lester and
Devonte Bowie had five catches each. Lester finished with 70 yards and Bowie with 69.
Ryan Cunningham led the defense with 18 tackles including one for loss.
The Fire return to action next week at Florida Memorial at 6 p.m.
