By Marty Stamper/Special to The Star
NEWTON — Both Southeast Lauderdale and Newton sought to avoid 1-4 starts to their 2009 football season when they met Friday night on a waterlogged E.L. Morgan Field.
Southeast made enough plays in the mudbog to come away with a 26-8 victory and improve to 2-3.
“We were determined that we could not go 1-4,” said Southeast head coach Boo Smith. “If we went 1-4, we felt like our season was over. Even if we were
1-4 without playing a district game, you’ve got to feel good about yourself going into the district and you can’t going 0-fer or 1-fer.
“We expected to come in and win this time. We asked them to win the line of scrimmage and I think we did that on both sides of the ball.”
Southeast took a 20-0 lead into halftime and held on as the playing conditions steadily got worse throughout the night.
“The conditions just took away from high school football tonight,” Smith said. “It’s just a shame anybody had to play in this.”
The Tigers took a 6-0 lead on their second possession of the night as they covered 60 yards with a lot of help from Newton. After an 18-yard pass from
Shelby Moseley to Nathan Freeze, Newton jumped offside on back-to-back plays to give Southeast the ball at the Newton 32. A 15-yard penalty on the hosts following a 1-yard run by Ledarious Clark moved the ball to the 16. Newton again jumped offside before Lakelvin Newell set up second-and-goal at the 1 with a 6-yard run. Moseley scored on the next play. The Tiger quarterback was sacked on a two-point attempt with 4:18 left in the first quarter.
A 6-yard punt had Southeast back in business at the Newton 37, but after a apparent touchdown by Clark was called back due to illegal procedure, Newton opened the second quarter by sacking Moseley for a 5-yard loss and forcing an incompletion on fourth down.
Newton reached its 44 following a 32-yard scramble by quarterback DeKarian Beasley before punting. It was the hosts’ deepest penetration of the first half.
Moseley scored on a 5-yard keeper off right end for a 12-0 Southeast lead with 4:57 to go in the half.
A sack of Beasley resulted in a fumble that D.D. Goudy recovered at the Newton 2. Three plays later, Moseley threw a touchdown toss to Jamie Bryant in the back of the end zone. Clark ran in a two-point conversion for a 20-0 lead with 58 seconds left in the half.
Newton closed the gap to 20-8 with 10:57 to go in the third period when Beasley completed a 14-yard pass to Terrance Evans in the end zone. The two hooked up again for a two-point conversion. Beasley and Evans also had a 30-yard pass play to begin the drive.
Clark picked off a Beasley pass with a sliding grab at the Newton 34 to set up the final score. Newell scored from a yard out with 2:16 left in the
third period for a 26-8 lead.
Southeast had first-and-goal at the 1 in the final period, but Newton’s Tevin Chapman stripped Clark of the ball and returned it to the 16.
Clark had a pair of interceptions for Southeast.
