Southeastern Dominant in 44-7 Road Win Over NWOSU

ALVA, Okla. – Southeastern's defense turned in its best effort of the season as the Savage Storm clicked in all three phases of the game on its way to a 44-7 victory over Northwestern Oklahoma State on Saturday afternoon in Alva, Okla.
 
The win lifts the Savage Storm to 4-3 on the season as they eye a return home on Oct. 22 for a homecoming matchup against Oklahoma Baptist at 2 p.m. back in Paul Laird Field.
 
"We played great defense," said head coach Tyler Fenwick. "Thought we played really good, efficient offense.  Our special teams were good. There's going to be things that we still need to get better at, but It's just good to have that kind of effort in a win today."
 
"We ran the ball really well," Fenwick continued. "We had good balance, but it's always good when you can finish with the ball and put it in the endzone, and run the clock and all that stuff and keep your defense off the field, that's a big deal.  It tells you that you've got a good, physical football team."
 
Marquis Gray hauled in three touchdown catches in the contest despite only pulling in five total catches for 40 yards, with his yardage mark sitting as a season low for him while his three touchdowns is a career-high and brings his season total to 10.
 
Braxton Kincade hauled in four catches for 30 yards, while Pablo Perini picked up 38 yards on two receptions with a touchdown.
 
Daulton Hatley would turn in his second-lowest yardage outing of the season with 198 yards while completing 28-of-27 for four touchdowns, bringing his career TD pass total to 57, leaving him eight behind Drew Beard's record of 65 touchdown passes.
 
Jason Ngwu would lead the Storm rushing attack on Saturday with a career-high 89 yards on 15 carries, while Deundre Wheeler added 58 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries. Jonathan Cobb would add 16 yards on two carries on the final two plays of the game for SE.
 
The Southeastern offense tallied up 359 yards of total offense, doing so in a fairly balanced way with 161 yards on the ground and 198 through the air, but it was the defensive effort that provided the massive difference on the scoreboard as the Storm held the Rangers to 130 total yards on offense, including just 35 yards on the ground.
 
Maalik Hall would lead that effort after missing the game a week ago and record a game-high 12 tackles, while Cameron Tate was next in line with seven stops, two fo them going for losses and one of those being a sack.
 
In addition to Tate, Jaiveon Gardner, Kevin Simes, and Alex Reeder would each record a sack, while Conner Swope would snag an interception.
 
On special teams, Michael Hookfin would collect a blocked punt which was scooped up and returned for a TD by Tyveon Williams, while Trey Keatts connected on his long field goal try, hitting from 30 yards, and finished five-of-six on PAT attempts.
 
For the first time this season SE failed to score on its first drive, with the Rangers taking advantage by going 71 yards on 14 plays with Dakota Michael scoring on a five-yard run to take a 7-0 lead.
 
The Storm would provide an immediate answer though with a 10-play, 75-yard drive, using 5:40 and converting a pair of third-down plays before Hatley ultimately connected with Gray on a 13-yard TD toss to knot the game at 7-7 with 2:04 to play in the first quarter.
 
Two plays into the ensuing drive Swope would snag an interception and return it to the NWOSU 22-yard line, and five plays later the offense would cash in on the turnover with Hatley again finding Gray, this time from eight-yards out to take a 14-7 lead with 13:26 to go in the second quarter.
 
The SE defense would force a punt on the next Ranger drive and Michael Hookfin would block the punt and Tyveon Williams would scoop it up and return it 33 yards to the house to push the Storm lead to 21-7 with 11:11 to play in the first half.
 
SE would again force a Ranger punt and this time would use 4:51 to take the ball 61 yards on 12 plays with Trey Keatts connecting on a 30-yard field goal, pushing the lead to 24-7 with 3:20 to play in the half and that would hold up as the halftime differential.
 
The Storm defense would pick up where it left off in the second half, forcing a three-and-out and the offense would take over at its own 29 yardline and march 71 yards on seven plays, with Blakely hauling in a 37 yard reception to set up a Wheeler eight-yard TD run, pushing the lead out to 30-7 with 9:01 to play in the third quarter.
 
The teams would trade fruitless drives before NWOSU put together its longest drive of the game to that point, driving to the SE 32-yard line before the Storm defense held on fourth down and forced th turnover on downs.
 
Ngwu would record three-straight 10-plus yard runs to open the ensuing SE drive and two plays after those, Hatley would find Gray for a seven yard TD and his third score of the day, pushing the lead to 37-7 with 13:09 to play in the fourth quarter.