Southeast’s inexperience shows in loss to Wauchula Hardee as playoff hopes take hit

The Southeast High football team was looking for a dose of hope.

Playing well might have improved the Seminoles’ chance of earning a spot in the state playoffs. Instead, they received a dose of reality.

Ellis Hodges rushed 12 times for 77 yards and scored three first-half touchdowns as Wauchula Hardee defeated Southeast 30-6 in a Class 5A-District 11 game Friday night at Paul Maechtle Field at John Kiker Memorial Stadium.

Hardee (8-0, 4-0) took advantage of a handful of Southeast mistakes to take a 20-0 halftime lead, held serve in the second half and rode back to Wauchula happy.

“We hurt ourselves,” Southeast head coach Brett Timmons said. “Penalties. Miscues offensively put our defense in a bad situation. These are things that we’ve been trying to work on and fix all year, and it caught up to us.”

After Southeast (4-4, 2-2) lost the ball on a fumble early in the first quarter, Hodges scored for the Wildcats on a 16-yard run. The kick by Leo Duarte was good, giving Hardee a 7-0 lead with 7:17 left in the quarter.

On Southeast’s next possession Hardee recovered the ball after a bad snap on a punt attempt and had the ball on the Noles’ 30-yard-line. However, Southeast held on fourth down, giving the Homecoming crowd a glimmer of hope.

Then, after a Southeast punt, Hodges caught a 19-yard touchdown pass from James Person. A two-point conversion was unsuccessful as the Wildcats led 13-0 with 7:13 left in the second quarter.

Hardee went up 20-0 about a minute later. Hardee Pace recovered a fumble for the Wildcats after a bad Southeast snap, giving the Wildcats a first down on the Southeast 3-yard line. Hodges then scored on a 2-yard run.

Duarte’s kick was good and the Wildcats appeared poised to make a run at a running clock. But all Hardee could manage during the rest of the half was a 43-yard field goal attempt, which Duarte missed.

Southeast struck first in the second half. Eli Daniels recovered a fumble and ran 40 yards for a touchdown with 9:09 left in the third.

“He was so fast the camera could not keep up with him,” a voice in the press box said.

The touchdown cut the deficit to 20-6 and inspired the fans.

The Southeast defense, however, allowed the Wildcats to drive the ball down the field, where Duarte made a 26-yard field goal to extend Hardee’s lead to 23-6.

After a rare Hardee punt, the Wildcats’ Caden Dunlap recovered a Southeast fumble and ran it back a short distance to the Southeast 2-yard line.

A delay-of-game penalty was called, pushing the Wildcats back 5 yards. Hodges was then stopped at the 7 and gained three on second down. Then Person rolled right and threw left, across his body. He connected with Issac Moreno on a long toss that went into the scorebook as only a 4-yard scoring play. The kick was good as Hardee led 30-6 with 6:46 remaining.

“Experience is the key,” Timmons said. “They are a junior- and senior-laden team and we are primarily sophomores, and it showed.”

Southeast will host Booker in its next game, Friday, Oct. 26 at 7:30 p.m., and closes out the regular season at Port Charlotte on Nov. 2.