Tulane University
Southeastern Louisiana
'New' Orleans Leads Football Past Southeastern Louisiana, 27-21
Sep 3, 2010 | Football
Sept. 2, 2010
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NEW ORLEANS - Freshman running back Orleans Darkwa ran for 75 yards and three touchdowns as the Tulane University football team opened the 2010 season with a 27-21 win over Southeastern Louisiana Thursday evening at the Louisiana Superdome.
The Green Wave opened the game with a 16-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that chewed 8:25 off the clock, but the game would come down to the final seconds when the senior defensive tackle Justin Adams sacked Lions' quarterback Tyler Beatty to clinch the victory.
With the win, the Green Wave emerged victorious in a season-opener for the first time since 2002 when Tulane defeated Southern, 37-19, on Aug. 31 in New Orleans. Southeastern Louisiana, meanwhile, drops to 0-1 with the loss.
"It was a hard fought football game," Tulane head football coach Bob Toledo said. "It started off well. We went down the field and scored, ate up a lot of clock and then we started making some mistakes. Offensively, we had two turn-overs. Defensively, we recovered and intercepted some balls. We had four turnovers - that was a real plus for us. The things I think that really hurt us were the penalties."
Tulane was penalized nine times for 79 yards, and the flags on the Green Wave came at inopportune moments. Two penalties came on fourth down when the Lions were punting, but a pair of offside calls gave Southeastern Louisiana the ball back.
Midway through the fourth quarter, a third-down play incompletion turned into a first down when pass interference was called following an overthrown ball. The miscue hurt as the Lions scored two plays later when Beatty connected with Kory Theodore for a 41-yard touchdown which turned a 27-14 Tulane lead into a six-point ballgame.
On the final drive of the game, Beatty threw what appeared to be a game-sealing incompletion on fourth down. Another pass interference call gave the Lions new life, but this time the Tulane defense came through with Adams' sack with the clock showing all zeroes to send the home crowd home happy.
"Last night I talked about `no penalties, no turn-overs, and work on field position' and those are the things that got back and hit us," Toledo said. "So maybe I shouldn't mention those things in the future. Anyway, those are the things that we've got to clean up."
All 27 of the Green Wave's points came from true freshman as Darkwa scored 18 points courtesy of his three rushing touchdowns while rookie kicker Cairo Santos connected on field goals of 29 and 27 yards and was true on all three of his PATs.
Darkwa became the first true freshman to score an offensive touchdown in a season-opener since fullback Darlvon Bracy scored on a one-yard plunge at Ole Miss on Sept. 2, 2000. In addition Darkwa is the first Tulane rookie to score three rushing touchdowns in a game since Matt Forté accomplished the feat against Army on Nov. 13, 2004, in the Dome.
"He's a little bit more mature than most freshmen," Toledo said of Darkwa. "If you talk to him he's very intelligent, he's very composed, he doesn't get rattled, he's got a lot of confidence in his ability, and he's very smart. He knows the offense. He's done a great job and he does it all. He can run, he can catch, he can block, he returns kicks. He's a special kid and we're excited to have him in this program."
Darkwa's first touchdown came on the game's opening possession, but the Lions answered Tulane's long drive with an eight-play, 57-yard drive of their own capped by a Beatty-to-Theodore 23-yard scoring strike to tie the game at 7-all. Following a three-and-out, senior Casey Robottom gave the Wave good field position with a 14-yard punt return and Darkwa put Tulane on top for good with an eight-yard touchdown run four plays later.
Santos closed out the first-half scoring with his first field goal of the contest to make it 17-7 at the break, but Southeastern shifted momentum a bit as the Lions drove down to the one-yard line and were poised to make it a one-score ballgame. Sophomore safety Devon Walker, however, jarred the ball loose from SLU running back Zeke Jones and senior corner Phillip Davis recovered the fumble in the endzone for a touchback.
Tulane gave the ball back on the ensuing possession, however, when sophomore quarterback Ryan Griffin's pass was intercepted by Lions' safety Re'Keem Wilson, and Beatty hit Simmie Yarborough for a 29-yard touchdown strike two plays later to make it a 17-14 affair.
The Green Wave answered with a 13-play, 61-yard drive on the ensuing possession and Santos gave Tulane a six-point lead with a 27-yard field goal. Sophomore linebacker Trent Mackey gave Tulane the ball back one play later when he ripped the ball from Yarborough and Darkwa put Tulane on top 27-14 with 11:15 left to play. Theodore's touchdown catch 1:46 later made things interesting but it proved to be the final score of the ballgame.
Darkwa accounted for the bulk of Tulane's 123 rushing yards - a figure that would have been much higher had it not been for four sacks that robbed the Wave of 29 yards from its ground tally. Junior running back Albert Williams had 57 rushing yards on 14 carries, and sophomore wide receiver had 20 yards on four carries in addition to his team-leading seven catches for 65 yards. Robottom extended his string of consecutive multiple-catch games to 10 by hauling in six passes for 48 yards while Griffin finished the day 17-of-26 for 129 yards.
Mackey led all players with 13 tackles (5 solo, 8 assists) to go along with two tackles for eight yards lost and a forced fumble. Eight of the Green Wave's 62 tackles were behind the line of scrimmage including Adams' stop on the final play of the game and junior defensive tackle Chris Asumnu's first career sack.
Senior strong safety Alex Wacha was second on the club with 11 stops (5 solo, 6 assists) and sophomore Ryan Travis posted a career-high seven tackles (6 solo, 1 assist) to with one tackle for a 10-yard loss, a fumble recovery and a pass break-up.
Jones led the Southeastern Louisiana ground game with 61 yards on 12 carries while Beatty completed 17-of-34 passes for 202 yards, three touchdowns and an interception. Yarborough paced the Lions aerial assault with six receptions for 52 yards and a touchdown while Theodore had three grabs for 77 yards and two scores.
Preseason All-American linebacker Mark Newbill led the SLU defense with 10 tackles (5 solo, 5 assists) while Tommy Connors and Nathan Clophus had seven each.
The Tulane football team returns to action on Saturday, Sept. 11, when the Green Wave play host to Ole Miss at 8 p.m. in the Louisiana Superdome. That game will be aired live nationally on ESPN2. For ticket information, contact the Tulane Athletics Ticket Office at 504-861-WAVE or log onto the Internet at www.TulaneGreenWave.com.
