SE Athletics
DURANT – DJ Brown rushed for three touchdowns to lead the way and for the fifth time in the last six seasons Southeastern picked up a victory on Homecoming, this time downing Northwestern Oklahoma State 41-2 on Saturday night at Paul Laird Field.
Sports presented by Indian Nation Wholesale.
The win lifts the Savage Storm to 1-3 on the season as it now looks ahead to a Sept. 30 matchup against Ouachita Baptist at noon in Arkadelphia, Ark.
“I’m thankful for those guys,” said head coach Bo Atterberry, “They played well tonight. Started a little slow. It was clean, but we just didn’t really get into a rhythm. And they came through and did a really nice job.”
“Early we couldn’t really find a rhythm and couldn’t finish,” he continued, “but I thought they really bounced back and put more quarters together, and more consistency and you really like that.”
DJ Brown led SE to its biggest rushing outing of the season, piling up 79 yards and three touchdowns on his own while the Storm racked up 220 yards on the ground and five rushing touchdowns.
Ryan Hirt exploded for touchdowns on each of his first two touches and would finish the night with four carries for 72 yards and those two scores.
Jonathon Cobb added 36 yards and Bryce Field chipped in 24.
Field would have his most efficient passing performance of the season as he completed 16-of-23 passes for 163 yards and a touchdown.
Weston Conaway would come on in relief and hit 3-of-6 passes for 16 yards.
The two QBs would spread the targets between 11 different receivers with 10 recording catches on the night, led by Kaleb Whitley’s five receptions, finishing with 38 yards, while Duce Pittman collected three grabs for 42 yards and a touchdown.
Andre Williams, Gyasi Smith, and Mathew Nunez each had a pair of catches as well.
Southeastern’s defense pitched a shutout as the Rangers would pick up their two points on a special teams play, and Michael Hookfin led all Storm tacklers with seven stops, including 3.5 tackles for loss, as well as an interception.
In all, 13 different defenders recorded two or more tackles, with Kevin Simes picking up his fourth sack of the season.
PJ Larry would also pick off a pass and turn in a 52-yard return.
SE forced a pair of turnovers on the night, broke up five passes, and recorded 10 tackles for loss.
After each team traded fruitless drives to open the game, SE would take is second possession of the opening quarter after a 25-yard Andre Williams punt return which was followed by a pair of 15-yard penalties which set the Storm offense up at the Ranger 15-yard line.
Three plays later Brown would score his first TD of the night, this one from nine yards out, but the ensuing PAT was blocked and returned 90 yards by Isaiah Kellum for a defensive 2PT conversion, making the score 6-2 at the 5:59 mark of the first quarter.
It was not until the first Southeastern possession of the second quarter that the offense would pick up the pace again, this time marching 50 yards on nine plays with Brown punching it in from two yards out to push the lead to 13-2 with 8:38 to play in the half.
The score would remain there at the halftime break, but after the defense forced a three-and-out to open the second half, the offense would need just four plays to cover the remaining 35 yards before Brown scored from nine yards out to record his third TD of the day and give SE a 20-2 lead with 12:19 to play in the third.
On the next Southeastern possession, it would take a bit longer as the offense used eight plays to go 70 yards before Fields would change things up by hitting Pittman for a six-yard touchdown with 4:34 to go in the quarter, taking a 27-2 lead.
Larry would bring the next Ranger possession to an early end with an interception and return it 52 yards to the NWOSU 23-yard line where a personal foul penalty would get tacked on and set up the SE offense at the Ranger 11-yard line.
It took just one play for Hirt to slash through the Northwestern defense and cover the 11 yards for a touchdown, taking a 34-2 lead with 2:09 to play.
The next Ranger drive would also end early, this time with Hookfin picking off a pass late in the third quarter.
One play later Hirt would strike again, this time from 47 yards out to push the Southeastern lead to 41-2 with 1:28 to play in the third, eventually going on to win the contest by that margin.
