SEARCY, Ark. – Playing with heavy hearts, Southeastern's defense scored a pair of first-half touchdowns, but was outscored 21-3 in the second half by No. 2 Harding as the Savage Storm drops its Saturday afternoon road contest, 38-24, in Searcy, Ark.
 
The loss drops the Savage Storm to 4-2 overall on the season with an Oct. 17 trip to Alva, Okla., up next to take on Northwestern Oklahoma State at 2 p.m.
 
"Super proud," said head coach Bo Atterberry, "That's what I told them. We wanted to come honor, as brothers, and I feel like they did that and I'm very proud of them. We can talk about complimentary football. We get what we want on defense and not offense, then vice versa. That's football. You know, life lifed us a little bit this week and I'm proud of the way these guys responded and chose to come, and the way they played. Told them, show them what's underneath that breastplate and I feel like we did that."
 
Prince Dweh led the Storm defense with a career-high 14 tackles on the day while Jacob Geddes was next in line with eight.
 
Will Billings logged a pair of tackles for loss as SE turned in six total stops in the backfield.
 
Kole McKnight snagged his second interception of the season and for the second-straight week her took it to the house, returning it 50 yards for his second defensive TD of the year.
 
William Wallis added his own defensive score, recovering a fumble and returning it 20 yards for the touchdown.
 
It marks just the second time since 1997 that SE has scored two defensive touchdowns in the same game, and the first time since the 2015 season.
 
Luke Hohenberger came off the bench in the second half to throw for 146 yards, completing 15-of-27 passes with one pick.
 
Levay Duncan had a pair of completions for 20 yards with an interception but did most of his work on the ground with 29 yards and a score.
 
Christopher Jackson led the Storm receiving corps with four grabs for 36 yards while Jax Sternberger snagged four catches for 25.
 
Sean Steens added three for 21 and Kameron Lockhart picked up 33 yards on two catches.
 
Southeastern finished the day with 12 yards on the ground with 35 yards lost on three sacks.
 
Duncan put the Storm on the board in the second offensive possession of the game, capping a 73 yard drive with a 25 yard TD run on a quarterback draw.
 
The drive stayed alive three plays earlier as Holloway converted on fourth-and-one at the Storm 36 yardline.
 
The Bisons took the ensuing drive and moved 70 yards on five plays with Andrew Miller scoring from 29 yards out to even the score at 7-7 with 2:07 to go in the first quarter.
 
McKnight ended Harding's first drive of the second quarter by picking off the Bisons first pass attempt of the game and returning it 50 yards for the touchdown, taking a 14-7 lead at the 9:55 mark of the second quarter.
 
On the very next offensive play, an HU pitch was mishandled which allowed William Wallis to scoop and score form 20 yards out to push the Storm lead to 21-7.
 
Harding answered on its next drive with a seven-play, 75 yard drive that was Capped by a 41 yard Miller run to cut the score to 21-14.
 
The Bisons would add three more points on its final drive of the half on a 27-yard Dean Roberts field goal, cutting the Storm lead to 21-17 at the half.
 
The teams traded a pair of short, fruitless drive each to open the second half before HU took over at  midfield and moved 47 yards on five plays with a 12-yard Miller touchdown run to give the Bisons a 28-24 lead.
 
That gap extended to 31-21 early in the fourth quarter when Jeff Regan broke an 83-yard touchdown run.
 
Southeastern responded with points on its ensuing drive as Dylan Cox connected on a 25-yard field goal, closing the score to 31-24.
 
However, Harding answered with another big play on its next drive as Miller broke an 88-yard TD run, making the score 38-24 which would hold up as the final.