Southeast Lauderdale stuns Enterprise in Trahan's debut

By By Robby Atkinson / special to The Star
Aug. 28, 2004
Southeast Lauderdale battled through the heat and miscues to take an exciting 27-20 over Enterprise to open the 2004 season Friday night at Tiger Field. The Tigers scored the game-winning touchdown with seven seconds remaining on a 2-yard run by Marcus Walker.
The win was the first for Southeast Lauderdale head coach Ty Trahan, who showed his emotion after the final seconds ticked off the clock.
"This feels great," Trahan said. "We wanted these kids to believe that they could come out here tonight and get the job done. I am happy for them despite some mistakes we made at some points in the game."
After a scoreless first quarter, the Bulldogs cracked the scoreboard first to take a 6-0 lead with 4:21 remaining in the second quarter. Bo Philyaw did the honors for Enterprise on a one-yard touchdown run. The extra point failed.
Southeast Lauderdale ended the first half with a bang to tie the score 6-6. Senior quarterback Drew Harper connected with Chris Gordon for a 64-yard touchdown strike with only eight seconds left in the half.
Enterprise opened the second half by using the ground attack to take back the lead at 12-6 with 5:27 left in the third quarter. Baron Blackwell took the ball in from 26 yards out to give the Bulldogs the lead.
The Bulldog defensive unit would lead to the next score as Blackwell picked off an errant pass from Harper and returned the ball to the three yard line. Ike McKelvain took the ball into the end zone from three yards out and also took the ball in for the two-point conversion to extend the lead to 20-6.
Southeast Lauderdale answered quickly as Gordon returned the ensuing kickoff 75 yards for a touchdown to cut the Enterprise lead to 20-14 after a successful two-point conversion attempt with 34 seconds left in the third quarter.
"I really thought that special teams was the difference in the ballgame," Trahan said. "We came up with some big plays in certain situations that paid off in the end."
The Tigers came up with another great return from Gordon midway through the fourth quarter to set up the next score for Southeast Lauderdale. Gordon returned a punt 49 yards down to the Bulldog 22-yard line and moments later Brandon Latham scored the touchdown from six yards out to tie the game at 20-20 with 6:53 left in the game.
"We made a few to many mistakes and we tip our caps to them because they played hard," said Enterprise head coach Joel Speed. "We knew coming in that we would need to play well in certain areas to get the win and things didn't go our way."
Southeast held the Bulldogs one last time on defense to go on the game-winning drive in the final two minutes to take the win. Walker carried the ball four times in the final drive for 71 yards that was capped off by his two-yard run to give the Tigers the 27-20 win.
Walker ended the game with 26 carries for 165 yards. Enterprise was led in rushing by McKelvain with 19 carries for 75 yards and a score.
Southeast Lauderdale will return to action next Friday night at Northeast Lauderdale and Enterprise will host arch-rival Clarkdale.