Southeast's homecoming date with UTM results in 35-7 victory

The big smile on Kellin White's face pretty well summed up what most of Southeast Missouri State's football players were feeling Saturday afternoon.

For just the second time this season, Southeast was able to bask in the glow of victory, thanks to a 35-7 homecoming triumph over Tennessee-Martin.

An announced crowd of 7,356 at Houck Stadium saw Southeast improve to 2-6 overall and 2-3 in Ohio Valley Conference play. Southeast's eighth straight win over UTM dropped the Skyhawks to 2-7 overall and a last-place 1-5 in the league.

"It feels real good to get that win," said a beaming White, who played a huge role in the victory with two interception returns for touchdowns. "We finally turned it around. This is great momentum for the last three games of the season."

While White, a junior cornerback, produced the two big defensive plays in the third quarter to highlight a 28-point outburst that broke a 7-7 halftime tie, senior tailback David Taufoou was the offensive star. He gained a career-high 127 yards on 16 carries, including touchdown runs of 69 and 34 yards. It was Southeast's first 100-yard rushing performance of the season.

"Man, this feels great," Taufoou said. "This win will definitely pick us up."

Southeast won handily despite gaining less than 300 yards of offense for just the second time all season. The team finished with 296 yards, including a season-low 148 yards passing.

Southeast also prevailed despite allowing UTM freshman tailback Donald Chapman to romp for a school-record 272 yards on 41 carries. But the Skyhawks' offense was hampered by the absence of quarterback Brady Wahlberg, who missed the game with a broken collarbone suffered the previous week.

True freshman Drew Jackson, who had not taken a snap all season, completed just nine of 26 passes for 106 yards, with the two interceptions. Southeast also sacked him four times, with three credited to tackle Brandon Bohnert.

Southeast's defense stiffened every time UTM got close to the end zone. The Skyhawks' only touchdown came after they blocked a punt in the first quarter and took over on Southeast's 1-yard line, then scored on the next play for a 7-7 tie.

"The defense is going to consider it a shutout because they only scored on that one-yard drive," White said, laughing.

Said end Adam Jones: "The defense has really picked it up the last couple of weeks. We felt like we had four games left and we were going to go out fighting. This feels great."

Jones had a sack and made one of Southeast's three fumble recoveries, with the others going to Bohnert and Brian Matthews.

On the game's third play, Taufoou went through a gaping hole up the middle and romped 69 yards untouched to the end zone for a 7-0 lead just 1:33 into the contest. UTM tied things less than four minutes later after blocking the punt.

Southeast failed to take advantage of numerous opportunities, as the Skyhawks fumbled three straight times deep in their own territory within a seven-minute span of the first quarter. But Southeast made sure it would not trail at halftime by blocking a short UTM field-goal try on the half's final play.

"I think that was a big momentum lift for us," Southeast coach Tim Billings said.

Southeast then took over in the third quarter, thanks in large part to White.

First, Matthews blocked a punt early in the period, with Southeast taking over on UTM's 43-yard line. Taufoou ripped off a 34-yard touchdown run that made the score 14-7 with 11:59 left in the quarter.

"The line did an excellent job all game and the receivers also made some great blocks," said Taufoou, who has a team-high 10 TDs.

Less than two minutes later -- at the 10:37 mark -- White intercepted a screen pass and raced 61 yards to the end zone for a 21-7 lead.

With 2:16 left in the third, redshirt freshman fullback Adam Casper from Anna-Jonesboro (Ill.) High School scored his first college touchdown on a 2-yard run on his first college carry to make it 28-7.

White then capped his big day by picking off a pass in the flat and going 35 yards for a touchdown. He has four interceptions this season and three have gone for TDs.

"I watched film all week and saw they like to run both of those plays," White said. "I was waiting for them to run it."

And Southeast didn't have to wait any longer for its second win.

Noteworthy

Taufoou's 69-yard run was Southeast's longest run of the season and also its longest play from scrimmage. That was eclipsed later in the game when Andrew Goodenough hit Antonio Scaife with a non-scoring 73-yard pass.

Southeast's previous longest run was 25 yards and its longest pass play had been 48 yards.

Sophomore David Simonhoff, second nationally in punting, got off an 82-yarder and averaged 51.5 yards on six punts. He had an 83-yard punt as a freshman.

Senior linebacker O.J. Turner was credited with 15 tackles, according to unofficial press box statistics.