LAKELAND, Fla. – A game that didn't start like a pair of teams coming off of 50-point games had an eventful second half as No. 15 Southeastern University earned a 44-27 win over the Campbellsville University football team Saturday night.
Picking things up in the second half, Southeastern held a 24-7 lead and got the ball to start the third quarter. The Fire drove down the field but were held to a 39-yard field goal to extend their lead to 20 points at 27-7.
After struggling most of the first half offensively, the Tigers were able to find a groove in the third quarter, scoring two touchdowns as
David Richardson scored his second and third on the ground on the night.
Richardson outrushed the entire Southeastern team as he gained 121 yards of the Tigers' 207 on the ground with three touchdowns and the Fire only gained 96 rushing yards as a team.
Richardson's only miscue came in the form of a fumble with 8:27 left in the fourth quarter as the Tigers were looking for their fourth-straight scoring drive. With the score at 34-27 and after gaining enough for a first down, the ball was popped free as SEU recovered, driving down themselves to kick a field goal to extend their lead to 14 points at 44-27.
The Tigers got the game within a score twice in the second half but were always answered by a Southeastern touchdown to keep their lead comfortable at two scores. Richardson's third touchdown made it 27-21 SEU but they answered with a 72-yard touchdown pass on third and 10 from Cooper Jones to Eugene Witherspoon.
With the score at 34-21, CU drove down again and were able to score on a 20-yard pass from
Talaileva Sufia to
Ziyon Kenner to once again cut the deficit to within a touchdown at 34-27.
Sufia had a bit of a hot and cold game, going 13-for-28 for 173 yards and that passing touchdown. He also added 39 yards on the ground but also had a first-half interception.
The CU offense got off to a hot start on their first possession, going 75 yards on eight plays capped off by a
David Richardson seven-yard touchdown to give the Tigers and early 7-0 lead.
After that drive, Campbellsville's offense was only able to gain 52 yards of offense and only picked up three first downs. They punted in all but one of those drives with the other resulting in the interception and one of the punts being blocked, allowing the Fire to have some short fields that resulted in points.
After the Sufia interception, SEU was forced to go three-and-out without gaining any yards but did get a field goal to cut the CU lead to 7-3. After two more Southeastern punts, it was a pair of Campbellsville punts with completely opposite results that led to two Fire touchdowns.
A 51-yard
Noah Bicksler punt that was downed on the SEU four yard line pinned the Fire with their worst field position of the half. That didn't matter to Southeastern though as a pair of long passes by Jones, a deep go-route to Marquavis Myers for 46 yards then a screen pass to Witherspoon for 50 yards to the Fire 96 yards for their first touchdown and lead of the game at 10-7.
The next Campbellsville drive stalled again as Bicksler punt this time was partially blocked, giving the Fire the ball on the CU 37 yard line. This time it took SEU four places but got in the end zone on another screen pass, this time from Jones to running back Bryan Bell for a 20-yard score, pushing the lead to 17-7.
It was nothing going still for the Tiger offense but their defense picked up the slack once again forcing a pair of three-and-outs before the Fire got the ball back with just over a minute left to go in the half.
After picking up a first down, Southeastern was faced with a second and 10 when Jones scrambled to buy time and loft a ball into the end zone where Jacob McCrary was open to extend the lead to 24-7 with just 13 seconds left in the half.
As their record will move to 1-3, the Tigers will return home for a three-game homestand starting next Saturday against Georgetown College. The three home games will all be against teams who went into this week at .500 or worse in Georgetown, Thomas More, and Pikeville.
