LAKELAND, Fla.—Despite a four-turnover night, offensive struggles, and other miscues, the Fire still had a chance in their season opener against Savannah State.
The Fire came up on the short end of a 23-20 contest, driving the length of the field for a game tying field goal attempt.
"We preach taking care of the football and we didn't do it tonight," said coach
Adam Waugh.
After trailing 16-0 with Savannah State scoring on all three of SEU's turnovers in the first half, the Fire finally got a short field of their own after
Thomas Ibrahim recovered a fumble at the Tigers' 19-yard line with 3:34 left in the second quarter. Freshman
Joel McGrath connected on a 32-yard field goal to get the Fire on the board with 30 seconds left in the first half.
The Fire defense came out strong in the third quarter, forcing three-and-outs on Savannah State's first three possessions.
"Our defense played a really good game for the most part," said Waugh. "We opened up a lot of drives in the red zone which made it hard and gave up some scores and we had some self-inflicted penalties early on that resulted in points. We just have to be smarter in certain situations."
Southeastern blazed down the field on a four-play, 50-yard drive, with three of those plays going for at least 15 yards. With the defense drawn offsides, quarterback
Nate Hayden took advantage of the free play with a strike down the right sideline to
Shane McLaughlin for a 20-yard touchdown to get it to a six-point deficit.
A 15-yard touchdown pass by Hayden to
Dominic Larry with 4:22 left in the third gave the Fire their first lead at 17-16.
Hayden finished 19-of-29 passing for 169 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
"I think we found a rhythm up front and ran the ball a little better and wore them down in the second half," said Waugh. "Running the ball really helped the other things."
It looked like the Fire were going to ice the game away with a 14-play, 79-yard drive that chewed up nearly 8:00, but it ended at the one-yard line with a fumble and the fourth turnover of the game.
After the defense forced a punt with a 16-yard return by McLaughlin, the Fire took advantage of the short field with a 42-yard field goal by McGrath to push the lead to 20-16 with 6:49 to play.
The Tigers answered back with a 12-play, 66-yard drive that ended with a one-yard touchdown run by quarterback Jadon Adams after eating up 5:10 of the fourth quarter clock.
With two timeouts and just 1:30 left, the Fire worked their way to the 20-yard line with three seconds left, but the 37-yard field goal was wide right.
Jakobe Clinton,
Chris Sharpe,
Thomas Ibrahim, and
George Phillip all had five tackles each to lead the defense.
The Fire will travel to Reinhardt next week for a noon kickoff in Waleska, Ga.
