Defensive stand preserves 19-14 victory for Redhawks

After having six punts blocked last year, Southeast Missouri State had gone through the first three games of this season without suffering that fate one time.

But when Samford came up with its second block of Saturday night's contest -- both in the fourth quarter -- the Bulldogs appeared poised to hand the Redhawks a demoralizing defeat.

Southeast's defense, however, had other ideas.

"There's always going to be adversity in football," defensive end Edgar Jones said. "We had to dig deep."

And dig deep the Redhawks did. Samford, taking over at the Southeast 17-yard line with 3 minutes, 1 second remaining after stuffing David Simonhoff's punt, was denied from getting closer than the 16.

After a second-down pass in the end zone was ruled to have been caught on the back line -- it appeared close to a touchdown to the naked eye -- linebacker Seth Harrell intercepted Samford's fourth-down pass in the end zone with 1:38 remaining to effectively seal a stirring 19-14 victory at Houck Stadium.

"I knew they were going to go into the end zone," said Harrell, a Jackson High School product who picked off the pass among a crowd of other Southeast defenders. "It felt good, and this is a big win."

With Samford having no timeouts left, two kneel-downs by quarterback Kevin Ballatore finished off the Bulldogs as a noisy crowd announced at 9,650 voiced its approval.

"They were very good," Southeast first-year coach Tony Samuel said of the crowd. "I don't notice it all the time, but I noticed it tonight."

What the fans no doubt noticed is that the Redhawks have now already exceeded their win total from all of last season, when they went 2-9.

Southeast improved to 3-1 overall and 1-1 in Ohio Valley Conference play, as they gave Samuel his first OVC victory.

"We finally had something good happen at the end of a game," Ballatore said. "When was the last time you could say that at a SEMO game?"

That the Redhawks were able to celebrate Saturday night was largely because of a stout overall first-half performance and a gritty second-half defensive performance, as Samford (2-3, 0-2) threatened to come all the way back from a 19-0 halftime hole.

"It was a tale of two halves," Samuel said. "In the third quarter we had a couple of bad things happen, but we fought through it."

The Redhawks totally dominated the opening half, holding a 175-57 advantage in total yardage and never letting the Bulldogs penetrate deeper than the Southeast 48-yard line.

Southeast scored three first-half touchdowns: on a 7-yard pass from Ballatore to Stevelan Harper with 4:40 left in the opening period, on a perfectly placed 37-yard strike from backup quarterback Markus Mosley to Samora Goodson with 13:35 left in the second quarter and on a tackle-breaking 7-yard run by Tony Anderson 4:35 before halftime.

The extra point was blocked after the second touchdown and Southeast missed on a two-point conversion try following the third TD.

Still, the Redhawks appeared to be in great shape entering the intermission.

Southeast still was looking good when it forced the Bulldogs to punt from their own 35 on the opening possession of the third quarter.

But the Redhawks were called for roughing the punter, which meant an automatic first down for the Bulldogs. And instead of perhaps building on that 19-0 cushion, Southeast had given Samford new life.

"That roughing the punter flipped the whole thing around," Samuel said.

Samford went on to score on that drive -- and the Bulldogs all of a sudden had grabbed the momentum.

That carried over to Samford's defense, which stifled the Redhawks' offense. Southeast had the ball for less than 3 minutes of the third quarter and gained just 36 yards after halftime.

Early in the fourth quarter, Simonhoff had a punt partially blocked, which led to a 37-yard Samford touchdown drive and a 19-14 deficit with 12:42 remaining.

Samford was driving again a short time later when freshman cornerback Todshon Jones intercepted a pass at his 4-yard line.

"I was just playing my coverage and it went right to me," said Jones, who now leads Southeast with two interceptions. "I was just thinking 'don't drop it.' "

Southeast picked up two first downs -- it's only first downs of the final half -- to chew up valuable clock before another punt was blocked.

"We need to get that cleaned up," Samuel said.

But at least the Redhawks will be able to work on that deficiency coming off a win instead of a loss.

"We knew we just had to suck it up at the end," linebacker Adam Casper said. "We showed a lot of heart, and this is a really big win for us."