Northwestern State Drops Their Season Opener

Northwestern State dropped their season opener in Turpin Stadium Thursday night to Southeastern Louisiana, 34-20. The visiting Lions, coming off the Southland Conference championship last year, piled up 438 yards rushing in the win.

NSU started former LSU and Vanderbilt quarterback Stephen Rivers under center. After the Demons recovered a fumble on Southeastern's opening drive deep in Lions territory, Rivers and the offense did little, settling for a field goal to take an early 3-0 lead.  On the Demons next possession, Rivers was picked off, which led to Daniel Hazelwood taking over at quarterback. He too struggled to get into a rhythm.

Meanwhile, Southeastern's ground game started gaining traction. The game was tied, 6-6 in the second quarter, the guests in gold and green scored three consecutive touchdowns to make it 26-6.   Northwestern's third quarterback of the night, Joel Blumethal sparked a rally that ran out of time.  The speedy sophomore played the final four series and led NSU to 156 of their 259 total yards in just 21 plays while putting 14 points on the board.

NSU is 0-1 overall, and more importantly, 0-1 in Southland play.  Next week, Jay Thomas' team travels to Lafayette to face ULL.

-Tim Fletcher