All's Well That Ends Well

The 2008 Southeastern football season came to an end this season on Saturday with a 38-31 victory over arch-rival East Central. After a 1-4 start, the Savage Storm closed out the year 5-1. The team’s lone loss came at the hands of Central, who went to finish 5-0 in the Lone Star North and claim the division title. Southeastern’s four-year reign over the North ended, but the season itself was salvaged with Saturday’s win, which pushed the overall record above .500 to finish at 6-5.
Southeastern started out slow on Saturday in their home finale and continued at that pace throughout the first half. Three different defensive backs had passes thrown right at them and the balls simply passed through their hands. Chances like that don’t come along all of the time and the Coach Ray Richards had to wonder if those missed opportunities would come back to haunt them. Especially since a blocked field goal attempt and a missed field goal were among other things that left the Storm trailing 10-0 at the intermission.
Down 10 again with score 17-7 in the third quarter, the tide finally shifted as Rocky Phillips and the defense grabbed a safety for the first time this season and the ensuing possession led to the first of two Brandon McCain to Daniel Nichols touchdowns. This one went for 34 yards. But the two-point attempt failed and SOSU trailed 17-15.

Now at this point, I’m going to take a side trip. Normally, I wouldn’t extol the virtues of East Central players. Though quite frankly, normally the virtues of East Central aren’t presented for me to extol. But the courageous performance of Tiger quarterback Marcus Johnson warrants mention on this site. Any good thing that has come to ECU football this year should have his name somewhere near it. Johnson injured his leg early in the third quarter and it was made much worse later in the quarter. He probably shouldn’t have come back out on the field, but he did. Barely able to walk or even stand, he rallied his troops and kept his team in the game longer than they should have been in it. The tigers scored twice in the fourth. Ultimately, it wouldn’t be enough, but Johnson showed a lot of heart and character.
That first touchdown gave ECU 24-15 lead. The second McCain-Nichols TD connection was 38 yarder and with the extra point SOSU trailed by two again. Later in the quarter, McCain passed to TE Jerrod Temple, who would not be denied and carried defenders more than 10 yards in for the score. McCain found Nichols yet again, though this time it was in the form of the two-point conversion and the Storm found themselves on top for the first time in the game, 30-24, with 4:29 remaining.
The Tigers scored one final time when Johnson led his team 60 yards down the field. The drive was culminated when the quarterback found the 6’5” Justin Heimer above two Storm defenders. ECU snagged its final lead of the day. 2:41 was left on the clock. Plenty of time for McCain and company to take it back.
In fact, Southeastern needed only 36 seconds to 61 yards for the final touchdown and final 27 came when McCain found hometown favorite Bo White who took it in. And it was McCain who crossed the goal line last. On the two-point conversion, McCain pitched to TB Baylen Laury, who took a couple of steps to the right and threw back to his wide open quarterback and Southeastern regained the lead for good 38-31.

With the victory, Southeastern has now defeated their rivals five consecutive years. That streak is second only to the seven games that SOSU won from 1942-1951.
Brandon McCain threw for 300 yards and moved his season total to 2145, which was good enough for sixth place on the all-time single season passing performance list. He wasn’t alone in making a mark in the records.
Daniel Nichols two receiving touchdowns came on a day in which he had 119 yards receiving. This was his fourth 100+ yard performance in 2008 and his season total moved to 797, which stands as the 10th best single season of receiving yards in SOSU history. His 818 yards in 2007 is the seventh best season.
Also, Baylen Laury had 73 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown in the victory. His 2008 totals include 6 touchdowns rushing, 5 touchdowns receiving, and he even passed for one. The season total of 764 rushing yards is just out of the Top 10 seasons in Storm history.
Southeastern closed out with four straight wins. 4-1 in the North this year is par for the course – SOSU is now 20-5 over North division opponents in the last five seasons.
It’s been an up and down ride for Coach Richards and the Storm, but the victory over the Tigers, closing out with a four-game winning streak and finishing with a winning record again has to leave a good taste in everyone’s mouth. 2008 did in fact end well and the future is bright.