Mother Nature was the only force that could slow down Lincoln Southwest's offense Friday night at Seacrest Field.

Lightning halted the fourth-ranked Silver Hawks' football game against Lincoln Northeast at halftime and delayed the start of the second half for more than an hour. The only thunder and lightning in the first half, however, came from Southwest's quick-strike attack that built a 29-point margin on its way to a 35-0 victory over the Rockets (1-2).

Big plays punctuated the first half as touchdowns accounted for 191 of Southwest's 322 total yards at intermission. The Silver Hawks (3-0) finished with 433 yards total offense, 317 on the ground.

Senior quarterback Rylan Cotton got it started with a 75-yard scoring run around right end on the first play of the game. The 6-foot-1, 195-pound senior, who had 111 yards on seven carries at intermission, finished with 142 yards on 13 attempts to go with 116 yards passing.

"Rylan's run just lit a fire under all of us, and we started rolling after that," said senior I-back Jeff Seybold, who scored four TDs and rushed for 111 yards on 11 attempts.

The floodgates didn't open fully until the second quarter as the Hawks scored on its final four possessions. After a 32-yard field goal by Austin Tompkins made it 9-0 with 10:10 left in the period, Seybold scored three straight TDs.

First, the 5-10, 195-pound Seybold broke a 53-yard run off right guard with 5:07 remaining in the half. Exactly three minutes later, Seybold snagged a slant pass from Cotton and outraced the Rockets defenders to the end zone for a 42-yard pass.

Coach Mark King's Silver Hawks drove 44 yards with just 43 seconds remaining to cap its first half explosion. Cotton and Vino Brown connected for 23 yards to start the march. Two plays later, Seybold made a leaping catch over the middle for a 21-yard TD pass with 14 seconds remaining.

"There was a lot of room to run. The line did great again this week," said Seybold, who capped the scoring with a 5-yard TD run in the fourth quarter. "Rylan and I have a good connection (in the passing game). We do a lot of that in practice."

Southwest went 79 yards in 12 plays in the third quarter, only to see the drive thwarted on the 1-yard line when Northeast recovered a fumble. The Rockets best scoring opportunity came in the fourth quarter when they got as close as the Southwest 24-yard line before giving the ball up on downs.

"It was great to see our kids put up that goal line stand and force the turnover in the third quarter," Northeast coach Justin Smith said. "Southwest has some great athletes, they're well-coached and they made some big plays in the first half."

Reach Ron Powell at 473-7437 or rpowell@journalstar.com.