Score: No. 19 Keiser 40, Southeastern 14
Records: Keiser (5-3, 4-0 SUN), Southeastern (4-3, 0-2 SUN)
Location: Victory Field (2,904) - Lakeland, Fla.
Time of Game: 3:00
Weather: Mostly Sunny, 78 degrees.
The No. 19-ranked Keiser football team used a big fourth quarter to pull away from the Southeastern Fire on Saturday night in Lakeland, Florida. The Seahawks utilized three touchdowns from
Jaden Meizinger and two more from
Marques Burgess to take control of the game. On the defensive side of the ball, KU forced and recovered two fumbles that turned into 14 points.
Keiser 7, Southeastern 0
- The Seahawks scored the first points of the game with a one-yard touchdown run by Marquess Burgess with 3:05 left in the first quarter.
- A made extra point by Chance Gagnon made it a 7-0 game.
- The touchdown was the 51st of Burgess' career.
- The Keiser defense held the Fire to 54 yards of total offense in the first quarter.
Southeastern 14, Keiser 10
- The Fire tied the game with a 12-yard touchdown pass from Kaylan Wiggins to Nicolas Scalera with 11:12 left in the first half.
- Gagnon regained the lead for the Seahawks, 10-7, with a 20-yard field goal at the 2:23 mark in the second.
- The field goal was the 10th of the season for the Keiser place kicker and capped off a 13-play, 96-yard drive that took 5:14.
- SEU regained the lead with second Wiggins to Scalera touchdown (11 yards) with 1:07 left in the half.
Southeastern 14, Keiser 13
- The Seahawks cut into the deficit to one point with Gagnon's second field goal of the game with 5:00 on the clock.
- The field goal was the longest in program history, sailing 48 yards.
Keiser 40, Southeastern 14
- Keiser would capitalize on a drive that started with 3:40 left in the third with Jaden Meizinger's first touchdown run of the day on the first play of the fourth quarter.
- One play into the ensuing SEU drive, Mitchel Desulme would force a fumble by the Fire running back as Wendol Philord would fall on it and give the Seahawks the ball on the opposing 21 yard line with 14:36 remaining.
- Three plays later it was Burgess who punched it in from one yard out to put KU up 26-14.
- Southeastern would put together a long drive with just under six minutes left that had them setup with first-and-goal from the nine-yard line.
- The KU defense responded with Luckaad Dorsainvil strip, sacking Wiggins before Brendan Parr returned it 80 yards to the SEU one-yard line. On the next play, Meizinger would get the final yard and extend the Keiser lead to 33-14.
- The Seahawks would have one final drive beginning with 4:34 on the clock. Three rushes by Burgess followed by two by Meizinger ended with Meizinger's third touchdown of the quarter and the game.
- SEU would push forward on the final drive of the game but fail on fourth down as the clock struck zero.
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- The Seahawks moved to 5-3 on the year with the road win.
- KU now leads the all-time series against SEU 3-2 and 2-1 in Lakeland, Fla.
- It's the second time this season that the Seahawks have used a high-scoring fourth quarter to secure a come from behind win.
- Keiser remains undefeated in Sun Conference play with a perfect 4-0 record.
- For the first time since October 26, 2019, the Seahawks had five rushing touchdowns as a team.
- With 191 yards, Marques Burgess increased his career rushing total to 4,525 yards, passing Dalvin Cook (Florida State - 4,464) for the third-most career rushing yards by a running back from a collegiate team from the state of Florida.
- Jaden Meizinger recorded his first three-touchdown game as a Seahawk on just 12 carries.
- Chance Gagnon broke the program-record for longest field goal with his 48-yard make in the third quarter.
- Jaelin Willis: eight total tackles, five solo, 2.5 TFL.
- Wendol Philord: seven total tackles, three solo, 3.0 TFL, 1 fumble recovery
- Luckaad Dorsainvil: two total tackles, 2.0 TFL, 1 forced fumble.
- Mitchel Desulme: three total tackles, 1.0 TFL, 1 forced fumble.
- Brendan Parr: two total tackles, 1 fumble recovery.
Keiser will return home for senior day against Ave Maria at the KU Multi-Purpose Field in West Palm Beach, Florida on Saturday, October 29. Kickoff is slated for 7:00 PM.
