SE Athletics
DURANT – Marquis Gray hauled in three touchdowns in the contest, but none as big as the one he pulled in as time expired to lift Southeastern to a 22-21 walk-off victory over Arkansas-Monticello on Saturday afternoon at Paul Laird Field.
Sports presented by Indian Nation Wholesale.
The win lifts the Savage Storm to 2-4 overall on the season and in Great American Conference play heading into an Oct. 14 road matchup with Southern Nazarene at 2 p.m. in Bethany, Okla.
“It was pretty obvious he was going to get the last two plays of the game,” said head coach Bo Atterberry of Gray, “So that says it all right there.”
“We made a change there,” he added talking about the offense, “And had to adjust a couple things here and there and I thought those guys did a good job with just new things here or there. They came in and executed pretty well.”
Gray would finish the contest with 11 catches for 145 yards and three scores, leading all receivers in the game.
He was Weston Conaway’s most popular target as he earned his first start and made the most of it, completing 27-of-46 passes for 291 yards and three touchdowns.
He would complete passes to six other receivers, with Hunter Hawthorne grabbing four catches for 25 yards and Kaleb Whitleyadding three for 52 to highlight the group.
DJ Brown led the way on the ground with 79 yards on 17 carries while Ryan Hirt added 24 yards on six carries as the Storm finished with 101 yards rushing on the day.
Jordan Hood led the defense with seven tackles on the contest and added 1.5 tackles for loss.
Joseph Jones would chip in five tackles and grab his first interception of the season, while Kevin Simes would add five tackles as well, with 1.5 sacks.
Both teams put together drives to open the game, but neither would make them pay off as the first quarter would end in a scoreless tie.
It was UAM who would strike first as they carried possession into the second quarter and eventually capped a 12 play, 69-yard drive with a nine-yard Buddy Taylor to Jovonnie Gibson touchdown pass for a 7-0 lead at the 10:10 mark of the second quarter.
The Storm would go three-and-out on its next drive and one play later would pay the price as Taylor would hit LaCedric Smith for a 40-yard touchdown pass to push its lead to 14-0 with 6:58 to go in the half which would hold up as the halftime differential.
The Storm would get moving to open the second half, taking its first possession 70 yards on six play, with a 39 yard connection to Gray setting up an eventual 19 yard Conaway to Gray touchdown toss to close the gap to 14-7 with 12:06 to go in the third.
Jones would then snag his interception on the first play of UAM’s ensuing drive and the Storm would turn that into three points as Dylan Cox connected on a 24-yard field goal with 7:27 to play in the quarter, making the score 14-10.
The Boll Weevils would respond with a nine-play, 67-yard drive that saw Taylor rush for a six-yard touchdown with 3:40 to play in the third, taking a 21-10 lead.
SE would finally get moving in the latter half of the fourth quarter, using 2:17 to mark 85 yards on nine plays, including a 29 yard connection from Conaway to Victor Taylor early in the drive, and culminating in a 28 yard touchdown toss to Gray with 4:12 to play.
The Storm would go for two to close the gap, but was denied and trailed 21-16.
The defense would step up and force a three and out, getting the ball back for the offense at its own 33-yard line with 2:31 remaining.
And they would use all 2:33, running 15 plays in that span and covering 67 yards, first converting on third-and-nine and later converting on fourth down with a 12-yard pass to Whitley.
SE would convert a final third down on a pass interference penalty called at the two yardline which would spot the ball there with eight seconds to play.
Conaway’s first toss to Gray would get knocked away, but his second one, while deflected, would find its way into Gray’s grasp and lift the Storm to a 22-21 win on the final play.