Southeastern Louisiana downs HBU 22-7 in advance of hurricane-induced rain storm

SLU led HBU 16-0 at the half.
Photo by Darla Tamulitis-La Vita Loca Photography
Copyright 2015 All Rights Reserved

By Robert H Kelly

Copyright 2015 TexSport Publications

HOUSTON, TEXAS (October 24, 2015) With both teams valiantly taking to Dunham Field at Husky Stadium before the torrential rainfall from the remnants of Hurricane Patricia hit the Houston area, the Lions of Southeastern Louisianadowned the Houston Baptist Huskies by the score of 22-7 on Saturday, October 24, 2015. With the loss, the Huskies fall to 2-6 for the season and 0-5 in Southland Conference play. Southeastern raised their season record to 4-3 and 3-2 in conference action. SEL increased their series record to 2-0 against the Huskies. Last season, Southeastern downed HBU by the score of 76-7 in Hammond, Louisiana.

Head coach Vic Shealy stated prior to the game, as quoted in an HBU press release:

“Southeastern is certainly a tough challenge, both athletically and the job they do coaching their kids. In this league, you don’t expect it to be easy any week, and I think our staff, a long time ago, came to appreciate what it takes to exist in this league and Southeastern has been one of the very top here under Coach Roberts and I know it’s a great challenge.”

The Lions scored nine points in the first quarter on a safety and a passing touchdown. Husky quarterback Max Staver bobbled the ball on a third-and-eight quarterback keeper play for a three-yard loss. He recovered the ball in the end zone, but was down for the safety. At the 2:55 mark, quarterback D’Shaie Landor connected with De’Quan Smith for a 10-yard touchdown pass. Jonathan Tatum split the uprights with the kicking conversion to give Southeastern Louisiana their nine-point lead after 15 minutes of play. With 58 seconds left in the half, they scored their second touchdown on the game, wide receiver Trey Hallman carried the ball the final two yards of a 80-yard drive for the six points. Tatum again did his job and scored the kicking conversion to make the score 16-0 at halftime.

Photo by Darla Tamulitis-La Vita Loca Photography
Copyright 2015 All Rights Reserved

The Lions added an insurance score when Julius Maracalin capped a 66-yard, four play dive with a five-yard run for his second touchdown of the season. After the Tatum extra point, SLU led HBU by the score of 22-0 with 9:24 remaining in the game. HBU finally got on the scoreboard 62 seconds later when Terrance Peters rushed 77 yards for the score. Travis Shinn connected on the extra point attempt to cap HBU scoring for the afternoon.

Peters carried the ball 16 times for 139 yards to lead the Huskies, while Maxwell Brown caught two passes for 17 yards. Defensively, Cody Moncure tallied 15 tackles, with eight of them solo, while Dorrin Turner accounted for 12 tackles (two solo). HBU could manage only 199 yards of total offense, with 170 of those yards on the ground. The Lions racked up 455 yards of total offense with 167 yards in the air.

It took the Huskies until the fourth quarter to get on the scoreboard and Shealy commented earlier in the week, via a press release, concerning getting off to a good start in games.

“That’s one of the things I’ve been proud of many of our weeks is we’ve come out and have played really well the first half, then the third quarter has been one of our challenges. I feel like to be down 21-0, it’s hard on the road, because you don’t have as much there to fight back, other than internally, to emotionally build on. How you start off does dictate the confidence and some of the things that give you a chance to compete. With that being said, Southeastern is capable of exploding with their skill kids. I’m a huge fan of D’Shaie Landor and what he does with the ball in his hands is pretty amazing, those 10 seniors on defense and how they swarm, tackle and run to the ball. You can look at those guys on the back end in Harlan Miller and Jordan Batiste -- they are some of the very best defensive players in our league, but you get beyond them and there’s just so many good players, you know in order for your team to build confidence, they’ve got to have something good happen to them. How we come out and play in the first quarter will speak volumes.”

HBU will next face the Lamar Cardinals on Saturday, October 31 with kickoff scheduled for 2 p.m. CT. SLU will play their next game against Central Arkansas on the same day with a 7 p.m. CT start.