Five turnovers proved way too much to overcome for the Southeastern Savage Storm football team as they suffered their first loss of the season 41-21 last week at Ouachita Baptist.
Coach Bo Atterberry’s squad got a pair of long scoring passes and 236 yards of total offense from quarterback Levay Duncan in his first start for injured Luke Hohenberger, but it was not enough to overcome the miscues.
The Savage Storm will look to build off the positives as they return home Saturday for a 6 p.m. start against Southwestern.
“It was just too many mistakes,” said the Southeastern head coach afterward. “There’s a lot of things well within our control that we have to focus on and take care of. I think we have a good team and I want to see how we come back and respond next week after a little adversity.”
Duncan got off to a tremendous start, marching the Savage Storm 68 yards for the game’s opening touchdown when he hit Kobe Jennings for a 46-yard score. Ouachita answered right back with a 61-yard touchdown pass of its own to knot the score.
Two turnovers on their next three possessions resulted in Tiger point as Southeastern fell into a twotouchdown deficit. A D.J. Brown five-yard scoring run late in the half on fourth and goal capped a 75-yard march to narrow the gap to 20-14 at intermission.
The host Tigers drove 74 yards to paydirt early in the second half but Southeastern again had the big play answer when Jax Sternberger bolted to the end zone on a 77-yard touchdown pass from Duncan.
Down by just one score entering the final period, the turnover bug bit Southeastern in a big way with backto- back fumbles resulting in short Ouachita Baptist scoring drives.
Another Savage Storm interception on the next series squelched any hope for a comeback.
Duncan finished 12 of 25 through the air for 156 yards and was also the team’s leading rusher with 80 yards on 18 totes. Brown carried 17 times for 72 yards.
Andrew Grissom led the Southeastern defense with nine tackles with William Wallis and Braeden Winters contributing eight and seven respectively.
