Football Falls at No. 17 Harding

SEARCY, Ark. – Southeastern was unable to get anything working on either side of the ball as No. 17 Harding snapped the Savage Storm's winning streak with a 51-6 loss on Saturday afternoon in Searcy, Ark.
 
The loss drops SE to 5-4 overall on the season and 4-4 in Great American Conference play heading into the home finale on Nov. 8 at 2 p.m. against Arkansas Tech.
 
The Storm offense tallied 277 yards on the contest, with 200 coming through the air and 77 on the ground.
 
Ryan Polite was 19-of-35 passing for 174 yards and a touchdown, but was picked off three times.
 
Dru Smith would come on in the fourth to add 26 yards on 2-of-6 passing with an interception as well.
 
On the ground Devlon Wortham had 33 yards on 13 carries, while Polite added 27 yards on 14 carries.
 
Nelson Akinwande picked up 23 yards on 10 carries, Ronnie Green had 15 on four and Smith had 15 on two carries.
 
Anthony Foster hauled in eight catches for 47 yards, while Franky Okafor and Kaymon Farmer each had three for 40 yards and Layton Dworaczyk added three for 30 and the lone touchdown.
 
The offense would turn the ball over five times in the game.
 
The defense was paced by Roderick Mitchell who had nine tackles, while Damarius Lavender added seven.
 
Kevin Jones-Dickerson posted six stops and forced and recovered a fumble.
 
HU only passed for 13 yards on one completion, but posted 467 yards rushing, with two backs posting 100-plus yard rushing outings and six rushers scoring a TD each.
 
SE got off to a solid start on its first drive, but saw it come to a crashing end when HU's Dennis Buckner forced a Dworaczyk fumble at the end of a 14 yard reception at midfield and the Bisons took over at the 50.
 
Two plays later, Ahmad Scott went 48 yards for the touchdown to open up a 7-0 lead with 11:59 to go in the opening quarter.
 
After the Storm was forced to punt on its next drive Harding marched the ball 72 yards on 10 plays and took a 14-0 lead on a Zach Shelley nine yard TD run with 5:36 to go in the first.
 
SE would see its next drive come to an end on downs in HU territory, but SE would get its first takeaway when Jones-Dickerson force and recovers an Alapeti Magalei fumble at the Harding 47 yard line.
 
The Storm would get no points on its next drive, but a Jared Heim punt of 50 yards would leave the Bisons pinned on their own one yard line.
 
However, they would march the ball 99 yards on seven plays and take a 20-0 lead on a Jason Oller 11 yards touchdown run.
 
Heim would be forced to punt on the next SE possession as well and Darious Lane would return it 82 yards for a touchdown and mount a 27-0 lead with 4:05 to play in the half.
 
The Storm would put together a drive on its final possession of the half with Polite completing five of nine passes, including a nine-yard score to Dworaczyk with 22 seconds to go in the half, but a missed PAT would leave Southeastern trailing 27-6 at halftime.
 
Southeastern would steal HU's opening possession of the second half with Jake Walters executing an onside kick that was recovered by Chad Tucker at the SE 47 yard line.
 
HU would end that drive with an interception on their own one yard line, but needed just three plays on the ensuing drive to score and take a 34-6 lead.
 
The Bisons would score once more in the quarter to push the lead to 41-6.
 
Harding would add 10 more points in the fourth quarter to fashion the final of 51-6.