Football Falls Short

October 3, 2009

WEATHERFORD, Okla. - Southwestern Oklahoma State University made a few costly missteps and were unable to overcome a pair of big plays by Southeastern Oklahoma State University and lost 33-10 in a football game Saturday in Weatherford.

SWOSU, now 0-6 on the year, continues its search for its first win of the season next week at Northeastern State University, a team it has beaten three straight times. Southeastern, which won for the eighth time in a row in the series, improved to 4-2 and moved atop the Lone Star Conference North Division standings with a 1-0 record.

The Bulldogs played well defensively against Southeastern, making the Savages scrape and scramble for each yard. The Bulldogs allowed Southeastern 254 yards of total offense, which bettered their season's average yield by nearly 300 yards.

With Southeastern's offense neutralized, the Savage Storm turned to return specialist Jerome Hewitt to provide the team a spark. Just as he did last year, Hewitt again was the difference maker. His 94-yard kickoff return just after SWOSU had opened with a 3-0 lead was the first of what would be 33 straight points for the Savage Storm.

SWOSU had its first lead of the season when Chad McIntosh kicked through a 29-yard field goal with 8:30 to play in the first quarter. The Bulldogs were aided by a pair of personal foul penalties issued against Southeastern that netted them a free 30 yards in the 10-play, 47-yard drive. Southeastern was whistled 15 times for 164 yards, had one player ejected, had an 84-yard touchdown run nullified and an interception wiped off the board because of the multiple infractions. SWOSU, meanwhile was flagged twice for a modest 30 yards.

The Bulldog's three-point lead lasted all of 12 seconds, just the time needed for Hewitt to zip 94 yards to put Southeastern ahead to stay 7-3 on a nifty kickoff return.

SOSU's lead grew to 14-3 when quarterback Justin Pitrucha connected with Daniel Nichols on a 48-yard pass with 9:09 to go. The Savage Storm added a 36-yard field goal by Cole Jones at the second quarter horn to take a 17-3 into the break.

The margin grew more as Noe Lopez sacked SWOSU quarterback Steve Day in the endzone for a safety to put the Savage Storm up 19-3 with 7:25. SWOSU finished the day with zero net yards on 28 attempts while Day was sacked seven times. Day completed 19-of-41 passes for 155 yards and was intercepted twice.

A Southeastern touchdown by Nic Boyd of 12 yards put the Savage Storm ahead 26-3 with 6:32 to play in the third quarter. Hewitt then ended the string of points with a 63-yard punt return to put the game out of reach at 33-3 with 4:26 to play.

The Bulldogs showed considerable pride putting together an eight-play, 65-yard drive in the closing moments for their lone touchdown. A pass interference penalty and a personal foul call again gave the Bulldogs 30 free yards. Day then got hot connecting on an 11-yard pass to Cody Gragg and back-to-back, 14-yarders to Johnathan Haggerty, the last of which was the score with 1:46 to play.

Defensively, SWOSU had a number of players who played well. They were led by Jaron Burgess and Nick Walker who each finished with nine tackles. Fred Leak added seven tackles and came up with an interception that ended a Southeastern scoring drive deep in Bulldog territory. SWOSU's defense forced Southeastern into five three-and-outs on the day, their most of any team this year.