A veteran defense did not disappoint for the Southeastern Savage Storm football team as they throttled ArkansasMonticello most of the way in a 21-12 season-opening road victory last week.
Coach Bo Atterberry’s club will face a bigger test this week when perennial league contender Ouachita Baptist comes to Durant for a 6 p.m. Saturday kickoff.
“A win is a win,” head coach Bo Atterberry stated. “It wasn’t very clean week one and we expect to see a lot of improvement next week, but don’t ever sleep on winning. We made some mistakes at times offensively, but our defense just kept plugging away. They (Monticello) made some really good throws and catches but our guys stood up well.”
The Savage Storm defense set the tone almost immediately.
Following a failed fourth down conversion deep in Southeastern territory, the Boll Weevils took over at the 36 and drove deep into the red zone before a tremendous goal line stand. Dylan Sebock stuffed the Monticello runner for no gain on fourth and one to turn the hosts away empty handed at the five.
A trio of solid runs by newcomer Jay- len Holloway got the Savage Storm offense going, netting 21 yards and a massive 43-yard carry from quarterback Luke Hohenberger really provided the spark. Eight plays later Chancy Lester Jr. bolted into the end zone from a yard out to give Southeastern the lead it would never relinquish at 7-0.
The visitors added a 53-yard, seven-play scoring march on their next series that was capped by a Levay Duncan one-yard touchdown plunge.
Defensive stalwart William Wallis throttled the following Monticello with a massive sack, one of five in the game for the Savage Storm, and Javon Towns returned the ensuing punt to the hosts’ 33 yard line.
Hohenberger then connected on three straight passes, including a 14-yard scoring strike to his brother Trevin for a touchdown that gave Southeastern a commanding 21-0 lead with 4:38 left in the half.
That was still enough time for the Boll Weevils to score one touchdown and threaten for another before Tony Hamilton picked off a Monticello pass just 42 seconds before halftime.
The second half was a virtual defensive slugfest with the Boll Weevils notching the only score while Southeastern managed just 92 total yards after the break.
Southeastern rushed for 233 yards, fueled by 12 carries for 64 yards from Holloway.
On the defensive side, Wallis accounted for seven tackles, including three sacks. Sebock chipped in six stops and a pair of quarterback sacks.
Monticello managed only 58 rushing yards for the game on 32 carries, and had 184 yards of total offense.