Mid-October Update: Southeastern Lions Run Away with Win Against SFA Lumberjacks

Head Coach Ron Roberts and his Southeastern Lions went out and took care of business on Saturday afternoon, October 15^th in Nacodoches, TX against the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks.

After their first drive, which resulted in a field goal by kicker Jonathan Tatum, the Lions got off to a hot start in the first half on offense, scoring four touchdowns minus one blocked extra point. Giving them a 30-17 lead at the half. Out of those four scores, three of them wound up being all of the touchdown passes that came from the arm of quarterback Justin Alo in this game. Alo would finish the game completing 13 out of 29 pass plays for 270 yards on the passing stat line, along with adding a net total of 18 yards rushing on 8 carries.

On the receiving end of the passing game, Juwan Dickey had the biggest day, catching five balls for 156 yards and two touchdowns. His longest hookup of the day with Alo was a 69-yard play that kept the offense energized throughout the rest of the game. Receivers Jacq’co Price (2 catches, 52 yards, 1 TD), Brandon Acker (2 catches, 34 yards, 1 TD), and Javon Conner (3 catches, 43 yards) also made impacts with Alo through the air.

That solid passing game in the first half made way for a perfectly balanced, ball control style running attack in their second half. Senior running back With less than 2minutes left in the first half, the ground game finally got their spark with a 2 yard touchdown run from Julius Maracalin. Kaelyn Henderson helped the Lions keep their lead by creating their second rushing TD of the game in the third quarter, a long 45-yard carry that held the Lions over into the fourth. Henderson finished with 58 yards total on 7 carries while the Lions other senior running back, Rasheed Harrell, finished similarly with 40 yards on 8 carries. The offense dialed up 40 run plays throughout the game, using nine different carriers to 129 net yards and 2 touchdowns.

In the fourth quarter the defense decided that it was their time to shine coming up with two big plays to seal the game against the Lumberjacks. With less than eight minutes to go in the fourth, the Lions’ special teams defense comes up with a huge block (by DE Jon Taylor) of what would have been the potential game-tying field goal, and Lions’ defensive back Courtney Rutledge proceeds to take it the distance in the opposite direction for a touchdown and a 44-34 lead. On the following drive, the defense would strike once again. This time, Lions defensive back Jacorey Fuller would pick off Stephen F. Austin quarterback Hunter Taylor and take it back 41 yards for another defensive score and the proverbial dagger in the heart of the Lumberjacks.

Even though The Lions now had a 51-34 lead, they were not going to let up on the gas pedal as quarterback D’Shaie Landor and the offense would have one more opportunity to score, and they would capitalize through the air in the final two minutes, as Landor was able to find Jacq’co Price on a 4^th down conversion that went 35 yards to the house to make the game a final score of 58-34.

The Ron Roberts and his Lions get their much desired first road win of the season, and improve their record to a steady 3-3 overall, and they are now 3-1 in conference play. Southeastern will now get the leisure of enjoying a two-game home stretch against Houston Baptist at 4pm on October 22^nd, and against Central Arkansas at 7pm on October 29^th.