The Indians turned the ball over five times in a 38-13 loss

Southeast Missouri State University lost another football game Saturday -- but you can't blame this one on the defense.

The Indians' maligned, injury-riddled defense had by far its best performance of the season, allowing 372 yards and basically being responsible for giving up just 10 points.

But Southeast's normally productive offense -- despite gaining 379 yards -- had five turnovers, including an interception and fumble that were returned for touchdowns.

Throw in a blocked punt that led to a 13-yard touchdown drive and the result was a 38-13 Eastern Kentucky victory in front of an announced crowd of 3,772 at Houck Stadium.

Southeast fell to 1-5 overall and 1-2 in Ohio Valley Conference play. The Colonels improved to 3-3 overall, 3-1 in the league.

"The defense played real good tonight," said Southeast cornerback Kellin White, who intercepted his team-high second pass of the season. "But the offense has been playing good, and they've had our backs all year when we played bad."

Southeast's defense entered play Saturday allowing an average of 551.2 yards per game -- the worst in NCAA Division I-AA -- and had not given up less than 498 yards in any contest. Opponents were averaging 43.6 points per game against the Indians.

But except for an 86-yard touchdown pass and a 46-yard drive that resulted in a field goal, the other EKU points could basically be attributed to the Colonels' defense and special teams.

"That's the best our defense has played, and we needed that," Southeast coach Tim Billings said. "It's good we finally played good on defense, but we played really poor in most other areas.

"No question, the five turnovers were basically the difference, especially when two of the turnovers are for touchdowns."

For the first time all season, Southeast had a first-half lead, and for the first time all season the Indians had more yards than the opposition.

But EKU has a pretty stout defense of its own and, for the second straight week, the Colonels forced five turnovers to win decisively.

"It's our job. We have to step up our game when the offense isn't clicking," said EKU safety Pierre Wright, who intercepted two passes, blocked a field goal and blocked a punt. "SEMO has a great offense. It was good to hold them down."

Southeast quarterback Andrew Goodenough threw for 339 yards on a school-record 57 attempts, completing 33 passes. But he was intercepted four times and also lost the fumble that EKU returned for a touchdown.

"Our defense really has been playing well," EKU coach Danny Hope said. "To hold SEMO to 13 points, that's a heck of a job."

The Indians' offense was stopped on downs at the EKU one-yard line early in the game and stopped at the 2-yard line on third down in the third quarter, after which a short field-goal attempt was blocked. Two other times, Southeast settled for field goals after driving deep into EKU territory.

"We had plenty of opportunities," Billings said.

The game started about as bad as possible for Southeast. On the second play from scrimmage, Goodenough's pass went right to EKU linebacker Will Stilley, who raced 37 yards untouched to the end zone just 18 seconds into the contest. The extra point missed, so the Colonels led 6-0.

But the Indians finally took their initial first-half lead of the season on Goodenough's 2-yard pass to wide receiver Brian Matthews with 2:46 left in the opening period. Derek Kutz booted the PAT for a 7-6 Southeast advantage.

Early in the second quarter, David Simonhoff had his punt blocked by Wright and Elias Israel returned it 20 yards to the Southeast 13. On the next play, quarterback Matt Guice hit Andre Ralston from 13-yards out and Ralston ran for the two-point conversion, making the score 14-7 with 14:02 left before halftime.

Kutz kicked a 32-yard field goal with 11:20 remaining in the second period and he tacked on a 44-yarder with 3:43 left to pull the Indians within 14-13. EKU drove for a 44-yard Phil Kuhl field goal 31 seconds to lead 17-13 at the break.

"I thought we were in pretty good shape at halftime," Billings said.

But less than four minutes into the third quarter, Goodenough was sacked deep in his territory and lost the ball. Chad Dewberry picked it up and ran 11 yards to the end zone for a 24-13 EKU lead.

Southeast still had chances to make things plenty interesting. Midway through the third period, Kutz had a 19-yard field-goal try blocked. And early in the fourth quarter, Southeast was driving when a Goodenough pass was intercepted deep in EKU territory.

On the next play, Guice hit Ralston with a short pass and the speedy wide out split two defenders on his way to an 86-yard TD that made it 31-13 with 9:35 left and basically sealed the victory.

Goodenough was intercepted for the fourth and final time in the late going, which led to an EKU 41-yard touchdown drive -- 15 of the yards came on a personal foul -- to account for the final margin.

Southeast tight end Ray Goodson, who had been questionable after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery last Wednesday, led the Indians with eight receptions for 60 yards. T.J. Milcic caught six passes for 79 yards.

David Taufoou rushed for 58 yards on 18 carries and caught four passes. Oge Oge also had four receptions.

Guice completed just eight passes in 19 attempts, but he threw for 241 yards. C.J. Hudson rushed for 103 yards on 26 carries. Ralston caught four passes for 162 yards.

Defensively, linebacker O.J. Turner led in tackles with 10. He also blocked a field-goal attempt, one of two in the game for the Indians. Linebacker Tunde Agboke recovered a fumble.