LAKELAND, Fla.—Five turnovers put Southeastern in too big of a hole to overcome in a 34-24 loss to Webber International Saturday night.
Southeastern (4-2) had four passes intercepted with one returned for a touchdown and lost a fumble.
"
Hudson Jones and
Henry Austad both did some good things, but we just turned the ball over too much and that's what did us in," said coach
Adam Waugh of his quarterbacks.
Webber International (3-1) got on the board first, converting a third and four with a 70-yard touchdown at the 11:43 mark of the first. Roshaun Dudley made it 14-0 with a four-yard touchdown run that came after SEU's second three-and-out to start the game.
A five-yard touchdown pass to
Dominic Larry at the 4:07 mark of the first got the Fire on the board at 14-7, taking advantage of a short field due to a Webber fumble.
The Warriors used an interception to set up their next score on a three-yard pass at the 12:32 mark of the second to push the lead back to two touchdowns, then four on the interception returned 66 yards for a touchdown.
Webber pushed the lead to 34-7 after a 29-yard touchdown pass to Jacob Moss on the first drive of the third quarter.
A 39-yard field goal by
Ashton Garner made it 34-10, and the special teams came up with a big play with 4:05 to go in the game, blocking a punt which was returned 53 yards by Larry for a score. The Fire converted the two-point attempt on a pass from Austad to
Bryan Bell.
"We really challenged our special teams this week to create some big plays in the kicking game and that play gave us a chance to stay in the game," said Waugh.
Southeastern then recovered an onside kick and Bell scored on a two-yard run, but the two-point conversion and ensuing onside kick both failed.
Bell led the ground game with 56 yards on 16 carries and
Deshawn Brown added 55 on five.
Desi Lester was the top receiver with 109 yards on six catches. Austad finished with 115 yards passing and 11 rushing. Jones was 12-of-17 passing for 96 yards with a touchdown.
Marc Viechec led the defense with a 20-tackle night which included two for loss.
Ryan Cunningham added 15 stops.
"Execution was bad, they got us on a couple big plays early where we lost our disciplined, but they battled and stayed in the saddle and gave us a chance to compete," said Waugh of the defense.
The Fire will return to action on October 22
nd at home against Keiser.
