SE Sports
Matt Thomas, Sports Information Director
BETHANY – Southeastern scored early and often on its way to a dominating 58-0 season-opening victory over Southern Nazarene on Thursday night in Bethany, Okla.
The Savage Storm move to 1-0 on the year and stretches its record against the Crimson Storm to 5-0.
SE will be back in action on Sept. 9 when it opens the home portion of its schedule at 6 p.m. against Oklahoma Baptist at Paul Laird Field.
Southeastern put points on the board through the air, on the ground and on special teams
“We’ve got some procedural things to take care of,” said head coach Bo Atterberry, “But we also got some game experience where we didn’t have any. I’m happy for these guys. You have to enjoy wins because they aren’t easy to come by. I like the effort but we have to lock in things a little tighter because each week in this conference is tough.”
“Through the game when as kept scoring on drive after drive,” said offensive lineman Matt Morse, “And it was a big confidence boost for the team.”
A trio of runners racked up nearly all of SE’s 262 rushing yards, with Rashod Polk turning in 94 yards and a pair of TD on just seven carries. Kieron Hardrick added 90 yards on 12 carries with a score while Kenneth Burks tacked on 77 yards and a score on 12 carries.
CB Cantwell picked up where he left off as he completed 72.7 percent of his passes, finishing 8-of-11 with 226 yards and three touchdowns, including an 80 yard bomb on the first offensive play of the season.
That long went to Drake white who finished with a pair of receptions for 84 yards and a touchdown, while Terrance Taylor finished with 118 yards on four catches with two touchdowns. Jaylen Sims added 46 yards on three catches.
OJ Walker added the excitement and the scoring on special teams where he turned in the first special teams touchdown since the 2015 season when he matched Romar Crenshaw’s record 93 yard punt return with one of his own.
Defensively, Hunter Powell led the charge with seven tackles, while Jarrett Ingram and Desmond Luster added six each.
Ingram also added a fumble recovery with a 33 yard return and a pass breakup, while Seu Luafatasaga forced a fumble and scored a pair of tackles for loss.
Cantwell’s 80 yard pass to White on the game’s first play opened up a 7-0 lead.
The Storm would close out the first quarter with Hardrick scoring from a yard out at the 2:43 mark to take a 14-0 lead.
SE would get the ball back to start the second quarter before driving 80 yards on 13 plays with Burks scoring from a yard out to open up a 21-0 advantage at the 10:18 point.
After SNU missed a 52 yard field goal try the Storm would take over on its own 36 yard line where Cantwell would again strike quickly, finding Terrance Taylor for a 64 yard touchdown and a 28-0 lead with 5:36 to play in the half.
After forcing a three and out on the next drive SE would cover 67 yards in three plays with a Cantwell to Taylor pass for 23 yards capping the drive and pushing the lead to 35-0 with 2:46 to go until halftime.
SE was not done though as it would stop the Crimson Storm offense with just under a minute to go in the half and force a punt which was fielded by Walker and returned 93 yards for the score and a 42-0 lead at the break.
A Joel Carlos field goal from 35 yards out were the only points in the third quarter which gave the Storm a 45-0 lead heading to the fourth. Carlos finished the day 6-of-6 on PAT kicks and 1-1 on field goal tries.
Polk would take over in the fourth quarter, first scoring from a yard out with 10:22 to play and later tacking on a 51 yard run with 7:25 to go which would fashion the final score of 58-0.