MONTGOMERY, Ala.—Southeastern battled back in the fourth quarter of a defensive struggle to force overtime but came up short in the extra period.
A one-yard touchdown run on third and goal gave Faulkner a 16-13 win over Southeastern to send the Fire to 1-2 on the season.
Both teams struggled to move the football in the first half with 10 of the 12 possessions ending in punts. A 61-yard touchdown pass on 3
rd-and-9 by Faulkner and an interception thrown by Southeastern were the only two that did not end in punts.
The interception came on the 12
th play of a promising drive that saw the Fire hold the ball for 4:25 seconds and occurred when
Hudson Jones was hit while releasing a ball downfield.
The challenge for Faulkner was poor field position with an average starting yardline of their own 14 in the first half thanks to five
Jay Brockhaus punts landing inside the 20 and two at the one-yard line. In the third quarter, Brockhous landed another punt ant the one after a three-and-out on the heels of a
James Hamilton interception.
Brockhaus finished with a 53.7 yard average on his six punts with a long of 73 which was one yard off of a school record.
"Field position was phenomenal with our coverage teams and two freshmen handling the punting and kicking duties," said coach
Adam Waugh.
Trailing 7-0 in the fourth quarter,
Joel McGrath finally got the Fire on the scoreboard with 14:29 to play in the game with a 42-yard field goal. Faulkner was able to answer the field goal on the next drive to push the lead back to a touchdown.
The Fire then put together a 12-play, 61-yard drive that took 4:54 and ended with a two-yard touchdown pass to
Tray Jackson from
Nate Hayden.
"I love the fight in the team and had a chance to win all the way until the last play of the game like we have in all three games, but we aren't starting very fast and need to look at why that is," said Waugh.
Hayden finished 13-of-24 passing for 132 yards but was sacked four times.
Faulkner put together a drive to set up a game-winning field goal at the end of regulation, assisted by facemask and pass interference penalties but the 40-yard field goal attempt was blocked by veteran defensive lineman
Daniel Craig.
Southeastern was flagged 13 times for 133 yards.
"I was really disappointed with the penalties since we had been a pretty disciplined team up until today," said Waugh. "The penalties hurt because we would get some momentum and a penalty would set us back and took us out of scoring position or put us in a third and extra long and it was hard to convert."
McGrath was good on a 39-yard field goal attempt in overtime to put the Fire up 13-10. After the Eagles threw an incomplete pass on first down in their possession, they went to the ground game, running the ball five times to get the 25 yards needed to reach the endzone and pick up the win.
The defense held Faulkner to just 208 yards on 68 plays.
Ja'Kobe Clinton was at the top of the tackle chart with 11 and had 2.5 for loss with a sack.
Chris Sharpe added nine tackles with 2.5 behind the line of scrimmage.
"The defense kept them pinned down outside of a broken play where we lost our eyes, but played really well," said Waugh.
Daniel Parker paced the ground game with 55 yards on 13 carries.
Southeastern will open Sun Conference play next Saturday night at home against Warner at 7 p.m.
