Southeast's first loss of season ends with postgame scuffle at Wauchula Hardee

It was so intense that the postgame handshake line turned into a brawl.

While the Florida High School Athletic Association likely will investigate and determine potential penalties next week, Southeast’s football season took a turn after a visit to Wauchula Hardee on Friday ended with the Seminoles’ first loss this season, 24-21.

The Noles (5-1 overall, 3-1 district) now have to hope for a Hardee (5-3, 3-1) defeat next week to rival Arcadia DeSoto while also defeating Sarasota Booker for the Class 5A-District 11 championship.

The culprit for Southeast’s defeat was two-fold: turnovers and penalties.

“It wasn’t good,” Southeast head coach Rashad West said. “We didn’t play good on offense.”

Southeast turned the ball over seven times, with five interceptions, one fumble and one on downs.

The Noles also committed 16 penalties for 145 yards. Hardee was hit with 13 penalties for 105 yards.

“We knew we were going to have to win out here,” West said. “We were going to have to win the game and we didn’t win it.”

Still, Southeast led most of the game until Hardee quarterback Kai Washington slid past the Noles’ defense for a 17-yard touchdown run with 3:54 remaining in the fourth quarter.

Washington ran in the two-point conversion to make it 24-21.

The Noles turned the ball over on downs, but the defense — one of the reasons behind the team’s 5-0 start — prevented Hardee from running the clock out.

That gave Southeast a final chance, and the Noles worked the ball to the Wildcats’ 35 with 1.3 seconds remaining.

West opted for a 42-yard field goal.

The snap, though, was poor and led to a desperation Alex Taylor heave that was intercepted to end the game.

“I thought we could give our kids a chance by kicking the field goal to tie the game and go into overtime,” West said. “We didn’t execute the snap and hold, so we didn’t get a chance to see if we could win it.”

Prior to that, Southeast had a couple potential turning points after racing out to a 14-0 lead.

First, Tyler Stevenson ran around a wall of Southeast blockers for a momentum-shifting punt return for a touchdown early in the second quarter to extend the Noles’ lead to two scores.

However, two personal fouls were called for hitting a defenseless player.

“There’s this new blocking rule, where you’ve got a basketball shield, peel-back block, I don’t know,” West said. “I guess that’s what they told me.”

Then later, Damien Washington picked off Kai Washington toward the end of the third quarter. Southeast capitalized with a seven-play drive that ended with Taylor finding Korey Waters in acres of space for a 27-yard touchdown pass.

“I thought it was a turning point,” West said. “I thought it was our chance to kind of put this one away.”

Kai Washington responded with a 46-yard touchdown pass on the next drive, before scoring with his legs for the final margin.

The victory means Hardee owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over Southeast for the district.

The district champion is the only team guaranteed a playoff spot in the FHSAA’s new points system.

Southeast needs to win out, beginning with Booker next week and finishing with Harmony, to gain maximum points in lieu of Hardee defeating DeSoto next week to clinch the district championship.

“We can’t come out here and be sloppy,” West said. “... We just have to be better character-wise and clean up the penalties.”

This story was originally published October 20, 2017 at 11:11 PM with the headline "Southeast's first loss of season ends with postgame scuffle at Wauchula Hardee."