SE Wins Fourth Straight, Downs NWOSU

DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern scored on its first offensive play of the game and eventually scored on the ground and through the air, while also adding touchdowns on defense and special teams throughout the afternoon to put together a 45-7 victory over Northwestern Oklahoma State on Homecoming Saturday at Paul Laird Field.
 
The Savage Storm improve to 5-3 on the season overall and 4-3 in Great American conference play while picking up its fourth-straight win for the first time since the final four games of the 2008 season.
 
Southeastern will be back in action on Nov. 1 when it travels to Searcy, Ark., for a 2 p.m. matchup with Harding.
 
SE dominated in every phase of the game, putting up 238 yards rushing and 184 yards passing and out-gaining the Rangers overall b y a 422-to-236 margin.
 
On offense it was Devlon Wortham from the first offensive snap when he took the ball 51 yards for the touchdown.  He would eventually post his first 100-yard rushing game since the victory over Arkansas-Monticello in week two of the season, finishing with 101 yards on 11 carries with two touchdowns, with an average of 9.2 yards per carry.
 
Nelson Akinwande posted his biggest day of the season with 85 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries, while Ronnie Green added 46 yards on 13 carries.
 
Ryan Polite tossed for 162 yards and one touchdown on 11-of-17 passing, while Dru Smith came on in the fourth quarter and completed a pair of passes for 22 yards.
 
Anthony Foster hauled in three catches for a game-high 48 yards and the only receiving touchdown for either team, while Tiquarrio combs snagged three catches for 25 yards.
 
Green added 45 yards on one reception, while a total of eight receivers combined on 13 catches.
 
For the third time in the last four games the defense held a team to single digit points, led by the efforts of Raheem Wilson who had a 33 yard fumble return for a touchdown, the first fumble return for a score since Johnny Seals did it on Oct. 22 2011 against Arkansas Tech, as well as an interception with a return of 36 yards, a pair of pass breakups and three tackles.
 
Thomas Curry added his first interception of the season while Jacoby Sanders, Chad Tucker and Clay Waters each had five stops top lead the defense in tackles.
 
Bobby Jackson would add a sack and Waters would pick up 1.5 tackles for loss.
 
Layton Dworaczyk averaged 21.3 yards per return on six punt returns, highlighted by his 63 yard return for a touchdown, the first punt return score since Jerome Hewitt did it against East Central in 2009.
 
The Storm defense opened strong with a three-and-out and as previously mentioned Wortham would take the first play of the game and go 51 yards for a touchdown and SE would take a 7-0 lead with 14:18 to play in the first quarter.
 
The Rangers would answer on their ensuing drive with Zachary Doyle finding the end zone from 17 yards out with 13:03 to go in the quarter to cap a four play, 75 yards drive and even the score at 7-7.
 
Later in the quarter SE would put together a 12 play, 63 yard drive of its own that was capped by Akinwande's touchdown to mount a 14-7 lead.
 
Less than a minute later on the second play of the next NWOSU drive, Jacobi Crowley would force the Rangers' Reid Miller to fumble which Wilson would pluck out of the air and take 33 yards for the score and a 21-7 lead.
 
Midway through the second quarter Wilson would strike again, snagging a Ty Hooper pass at midfield and returning it 36 yards to the NWOSU 13 yard line.
 
Two plays later Wortham would score from eight yards out for his second score of the day and his 10^th rushing TD of the year.
 
After the defense forced the Rangers into a punting situation on the net drive Dworaczyk would take the punt at his own 37 yard line and weave 63 yards for a touchdown and a 35-7 SE lead with 4:28 to go before halftime.
 
On the next Storm possession, the team would drive 61 yards in nine plays, capped by a Polite to Foster touchdown pass of 28 yards to push the score to 42-7 where it would remain at halftime.
 
The only points of the second half would come as the Storm capped its second drive of the second half with a 23 yard Jake Walters field goal with 7:01 to go in the third quarter to fashion what would become the 45-7 final score.