Savage Storm football breaks records in a big victory

Cameron Schuessler

Cameron Schuessler, Contributing Writer

Senior running back Devlon Wortham recorded six rushing touchdowns, breaking a Southeastern record that had stood since 1922, in route to a 55-34 victory over Northwestern Oklahoma State.

The Southeastern defense would force Northwestern to punt to start out the game before Southeastern would go right down the field and score on a Wortham rushing touchdown. Northwestern would answer on a drive aided by a facemask penalty against the SE defense. The Savage Storm would add on a 42 yard field goal by Joel Carlos for a 10-7 lead before punts by each team ended the first quarter.

The second quarter would start with four consecutive punts before a 43 yard pass led to a 10 yard touchdown run by the Rangers for a 14-10 lead for Northwestern. The next Southeastern drive saw quarterback CB Cantwell hook up with tight end Bryce Steele for 24 yards before Wortham would finish off the drive with a 21 yard touchdown run to give Southeastern the 17-14 lead. The next drive for the Rangers saw Trent Hannah and Demarius Lavender for the Savage Storm combine for three consecutive plays, forcing a punt. The Savage Storm would then go down the field, often on the arm of the quarterback, finishing off the drive with a touchdown pass from Cantwell to receiver senior Kaymon Farmer for a 24-14 lead that Southeastern would take into halftime.

Senior running back Ronnie Green would lead the first drive of the second half for Southeastern before Wortham would then punch in his third touchdown rush of the game for a 31-14 Southeastern lead. However, Northwestern would quickly answer back with 64 yards on the ground, capped off by a rushing touchdown to cut the lead to 31-21 in the third quarter. Southeastern had their own quick response as Wortham busted off a 54 yard touchdown, his fourth of the game. After a failed fake extra point the Storm lead was 37-21. Northwestern would again respond quickly with a 28 yard touchdown pass to cut the Storm lead to 37-28, late in the third quarter.

Big plays by Green and Farmer fueled the next Southeastern drive that ended with a field goal by Carlos that put the score at 40-28 for the Storm early in the fourth quarter. Northwestern responded with a passing touchdown to cut the lead to 40-34 after a missed extra point. However return man CJ Elkins would set up the Savage Storm nicely with a return to midfield. Wortham would then take the first play 50 yards to the endzone for his fifth touchdown of the game to re-extend the Southeastern lead to 47-34.

Southeastern would hold the Rangers to a turnover on downs before Green would pick up most of the yards on another Storm drive before Wortham would score his record-breaking sixth touchdown of the game, cementing the victory for Southeastern at a final score of 55-34 after the fake extra point saw holder Jake Walters toss it to kicker Carlos for an easy two-point score. Wortham also broke the career rushing yards record for Southeastern, surpassing 30,000 career yards in the game