Indians excel in OVC opener, beat TSU 49-25

Southeast Missouri State University's football team evidently got tired of all those white-knuckle finishes.

The Indians, whose previous three wins were down-to-the-wire affairs, left no doubt Saturday night when they pummeled Tennessee State 49-25 in the Ohio Valley Conference opener for both squads.

An announced crowd of 8,135 at Houck Stadium saw the Indians improve to 4-2 and equal their victory total from last season. The Tigers fell to 1-5 and had their five-game winning streak against Southeast snapped.

"It was nice not to have to sweat it out for a change," Southeast coach Tim Billings said. "We had a little lull in the third quarter, but it was nice to have it pretty much wrapped up in the last few minutes."

There were plenty of heroes all the way around for the Indians as they put up their most points in a game since moving up to Division I-AA in 1991 and beat an OVC team other than Tennessee-Martin for the first time since Billings took over the program three years ago.

"We came out fired up and things pretty well clicked tonight," said Southeast quarterback Jack Tomco, who tied a school single-game record held by several players as he threw four touchdown passes. "We wanted to show people that last week" -- an upset win over Division I-A Middle Tennessee -- "was no fluke. We wanted to show the OVC that we're for real."

Tomco completed 25 of 36 for 300 yards, with one interception. His favorite targets were Willie Ponder and Tarik Simpson, who both caught eight passes and had more than 100 receiving yards. Ponder scored two touchdowns and Simpson added one.

Chris NesSmith caught five passes and scored two touchdowns, including one on a first-quarter punt return that gave the Indians an early lead that they would not relinquish.

"We wanted to make a statement to the OVC tonight and I think we did," NesSmith said.

Corey Kinsey led the Southeast running attack with 77 yards on 19 carries. Keiki Misipeka added 48 yards on nine attempts as he and Iven Brown both scored touchdowns on short runs.

Southeast piled up 486 yards of total offense. While TSU finished with 382 yards, the Tigers had just 72 yards in the first half as the Indians' defense pitched a shutout. Southeast led 28-0 at halftime.

"After losing to them for a while, it felt good to finally beat them," linebacker Ricky Farmer said. "I think we showed we're for real and the OVC has to deal with us."

Farmer and Mike Miller were both credited with 10 tackles according to unofficial pressbox statistics. James Jennette and Ryan Roth each had three sacks as Southeast got strong pressure on TSU freshman quarterback Dwayne Buchanan all night, although Buchanan did pass for 290 yards. Kellin White and Prince Anderson both had interceptions and Adam Jones recovered a fumble.

"I thought the defense played really well in the first half," Roth said. "We might have let up a little in the second half, but we knew from the beginning that they have a real good offense and they'd be hard to hold down the whole night. We knew they could make some plays."

NesSmith's 44-yard punt return with 9:12 left in the first quarter -- he appeared to not even be touched on the play thanks to several key blocks -- and the first of seven extra points by Derek Kutz got the Indians rolling early.

"It's the first good punt return I've had this year," NesSmith said. "I got some great blocks. I don't think I even got touched."

The Indians scored 21 second-quarter points. Misipeka went in from one yard out with 10:47 left, Simpson hauled in a 39-yard pass from Tomco with 8:33 remaining and Tomco hit Ponder from 44 yards out with 6:52 left.

TSU finally got its offense going in the third quarter as 18 straight points cut the deficit to 28-18.

But Southeast answered in the closing seconds of the period as NesSmith caught a 22-yard touchdown pass from Tomco to make it 35-18. When Tomco and Ponder hooked up on a 15-yard scoring strike early in the fourth quarter, the Indians led 42-18 and the Tigers were all but out of comeback hopes.

After TSU pulled to within 42-25, the Indians close out the night's scoring with 7:29 left on Brown's 6-yard run.

"Coming in, everybody thought last week was a fluke. You can't really blame them," Roth said. "But I think we're for real and we just have to keep proving it."

mmishow@semissourian.com

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