SE Athletics
ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – Southeastern was unable to bounce back from a slow offensive start despite a strong defensive effort in the second half of a 34-7 road loss to No. 5/9 Ouachita Baptist on Saturday afternoon in Arkadelphia, Ark.
Sports presented by Indian Nation Wholesale.
The loss drops the Savage Storm to 1-4 on the season heading into an Oct. 7 matchup with Arkansas-Monticello at 2 p.m. at Paul Laird Field.
“I’m upset, we’ve got to get better,” said head coach Bo Atterberry, “But I was proud of the way they fought and represented themselves, our university, and our ball club. We had some things early on that stopped some drives here and there. One of our goals is to not have a penalty to stop or extend the drive and we did that early. We just didn’t give ourselves a chance early, but I’m proud of the way they fought.”
The SE offense would put together 273 yards of total offense, with 165 of it coming through the air as Bryce Field went 15-of-33 for 133 yards before Kane Donovan came on to complete 3-of-3 passes for 32 yards.
Kaleb Whitley led the way in receptions with five for 30 yards, while Hunter Hawthorne and Marquis Gray each had three grabs for 49 yards each.
Gray’s 49-yard effort lifts him to fourth All-time on SE’s career receiving yards list, passing Pete Spratt in fifth and Kaymon Farmer in fourth and bringing his career total to 2,342 yards.
SE would see a pair of quarterbacks lead its rushing efforts, with Field putting up 27 yards on nine carries, while Donovan added 27 yards on five totes.
Ryan Hirt would add 23 yards and a touchdown on the ground, with Victor Taylor picking up 16 yards on a run.
Defensively, Cameron Tate and PJ Larry each had a game-high eight tackles, with Larry adding his second interception of the season and a pair of pass breakups.
D’Teaurean Johnson followed with six tackles, while Tyveon Williams, Josph Jones and Michael Hookfin had five each.
OBU would score on each of its first four drives in the game, putting up touchdowns on its first three drives before kicking a field goal on its last drive of the second quarter to take a 24-0 lead into the halftime break, while SE would see two of its four first half drive go three-and-out.
In the second half, the Storm would march the field on all five of its drive, but would see four of them end in turnovers on downs as they were trying to make up ground on the halftime deficit.
The defense would slow the Tiger offense to 10 second-half points, while the offense would put together a 10-play, 75 yard drive to finish the game with a Hirt rushing touchdown from two-yards out to put the Storm on the board and make the final score 34-7.