MONTICELLO, Ark. – William Wallis and Dylan Sebock combined for five sacks and Southeastern rushed for 233 yards and a pair of touchdowns on its way to a season-opening 21-12 victory over Arkansas-Monticello on Thursday night in Monticello, Ark.
 
The win moves the Savage Storm to 1-0 to open the year before returning home to the friendly confines of Paul Laird Field at Spend Life Wisely Stadium to host Ouachita Baptist at 6 p.m.
 
Southeastern improves to 12-4 in the series with the Boll Weevils all time, making this win the sixth-straight in the series.
 
"A win is a win," said head coach Bo Atterberry. "I told those guys, you don't ever sleep on winning. It wasn't a great, clean week one. We'll see a lot of improvement next week, but don't ever sleep on winning."
 
"I think what they got, they earned," continued Atterberry. "They made some really good throws and catches. But our defense just kept plugging away. One play at a time and the next play is the best play. I'm very proud of those guys."
 
The Southeastern defense held UAM to 184 yards of total offense in the contest, including 58 yards on the ground.
 
Wallis led the defense with seven total tackles, three of them sacks for a total loss of 20 yards.
 
Sebock was right on his heels with six total stops and a pair of sacks.
 
Kole McKnight logged a pair of pass breakups and Tony Hamilton recorded an interception.
 
De'Teaurean Johnson recorded five stops and a tackle for loss, while Prince Dweh added two tackles for loss and Alex Robinson chipped in one as the Storm finished with nine TFL as a team.
 
The Storm offense logged 322 yards of total offense, doing the bulk of its work on the ground with 233 yards rushing.
 
Five players recorded five or more carries, with Jaylen Holloway leading the rushing attack with 12 carries for 64 yards.
 
Levay Duncan was next in line with 53 yards on nine carries with a touchdown, while Luke Hohenberger picked up 47 yards on five totes.
 
Kameron Lockhart finished with 39 yards on six carries, while Chancy Lester Jr. picked up 36 yards on nine carries and scored a touchdown.
 
Luke Hohenberger led the passing game, completing 6-of-9 passes for 61 yards and a touchdown, while Duncan followed with a 2-of-8 performance passing for 28 yards.
 
Trevin Hohenberger led the receiving corps with two catches for 31 yards and a touchdown.
 
Lockhart had two receptions for five yards on screen passes, while Sean Steens, Lester, Colton Simpson, and Jacob Brewer each added a catch.
 
On special teams, Javon Towns turned in a 20 yard punt return and Lockhart ripped off a 46 yard kickoff return, while Dylan Cox  finished 3-for-3 on PAT.
 
SE was slow to start out of the gate, ultimately seeing a fake punt try come up short, giving the Boll Weevils a short field to work with.
 
UAM marched down to the Storm five-yard line where the Southeastern defense turned in a goal line stand, ending the drive at the five-yard line.
 
SE followed with a 13-play, 95-yard drive before Lester Jr. punched it in from a yard out for the first score of the season and a 7-0 lead with 49 seconds to play in the first quarter.
 
The Storm followed that up by taking its first drive in the second quarter just 53 yards on seven plays before Duncan scored from a yard out to take a 14-0 lead.
 
That advanced to 21-0 on the fourth drive of the game as SE worked with a short field and saw Luke Hohenberger connect with brother Trevin Hohenberger on the fourth play, taking 2:09 off the clock.
 
UAM got on the board on its ensuing drive after going 74 yards on five plays and taking 2:17 off the clock before Braylon Henry scored form a yard out. Dylan Sebock would block the following PAT to keep the score at 21-6 with 2:15 to play in the half.
 
The teams traded fruitless drives to open the second half before the Weevils put together a 16-play, 80-yard drive that took 7:06 off the clock before Henry scored his second TD of the day, but the Storm would stop the two-point try to hang onto a 21-12 lead with 4:08 to play in the third quarter.
 
Southeastern took over possession to open the fourth quarter and held the ball for 16 plays and despite not scoring, was able to burn 7:42 off the clock.
 
The teams followed by holding each other to negative yardage drives before UAM took over with 4:02 remaining.
 
Wallis would almost single handedly bring that drive to an end with back-to-back sacks to move the Weevils for the SE 30 yardline back to the UAM 43.
 
The Storm defense would force the punt and Southeastern would run out the ,cock to reserve the 21-12 win.