LAKELAND, Fla.—Southeastern has played Warner seven times in football with the first meeting between the two Polk County rivals coming in the first game at Victory Field back in 2014.
Eight years later, the Fire and Royals will go head-to-head in the first game at a new field once again.
Saturday's game between the 5-3 Fire and the 1-6 Royals will be the first football game on the campus of Warner University on its brand-new turf field. This will be the first meeting between the two teams to happen outside of Lakeland.
Southeastern is coming off a 41-13 win in Miami Gardens over Florida Memorial which saw the Fire rush for a season-high 309 yards as a team and held the Lions to just 76 rushing yards with a long run of 10 yards on the night.
Kaylan Wiggins passed for over 200 yards and rushed for another 100 with two touchdowns in the winning effort.
On defense,
Marc Viechec posted 12 tackles with two for loss to move his season total to 75 total stops this year which is just three away from his total last season when he was the conference defensive player of the year. His 176 career tackles ranks third all-time in program history.
Warner has struggled offensively under first-year head coach Dialleo Burks at just 10 points per game. Evens Valcourt has three touchdown receptions in five games this year with senior QB Cohen Begue leading the passing game with five touchdowns in four games. Against St. Thomas last week, Begue passed for 195 yards and two touchdowns.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
