Indians explode past SIU

It took a while, but Jeromy McDowell and Southeast Missouri State University's offense finally ended up picking apart the Southern Illinois defense.

McDowell, Southeast's highly touted redshirt freshman quarterback, passed for a school record 391 yards Saturday night -- 317 coming in the second half -- as the Indians pulled away for a 24-5 victory in front of 9,822 fans at Houck Stadium.

The Indians, who were significantly outplayed in the first half but somehow managed a 3-3 tie at the intermission, evened their record at 1-1. The Salukis fell to 0-1.

"I had no idea what happened in the first half," said a smiling McDowell as he accepted congratulations on the field just moments after the game. "The offensive line played real well in the second half and the receivers made big plays."

McDowell struggled big-time over the opening two quarters, completing just five of 19 attempts for 74 yards. But those numbers improved incredibly over the final two periods, to the tune of 14-for-23 for 317 yards and three touchdowns. McDowell finished 19 of 42 and he was intercepted twice.

A product of North County High School, McDowell broke Southeast's previous school mark of 372 yards set by Jeff Brown in 1985 against Northeast Missouri State.

"That's great, but I really don't care about it," said McDowell of the record. "It's the players around me that are the key."

Southeast also set a new single-game team passing standard of 418 yards, which includes a completion of 27 yards by backup Bobby Brune, who came in briefly when McDowell left for two plays after being dinged up a bit.

While McDowell -- with plenty of help from his young offensive line, which gave him lots of time in the second half -- was putting the ball on the money, Southeast's big-play receiving corps made all kinds of things happen once they made the catches.

Tarik Simpson caught two touchdown passes and finished with five receptions for 104 yards.

Willie Ponder, who hauled in McDowell's third and final TD pass, had seven receptions for 121 yards. And Adrian Sanders caught six passes for a whopping 190 yards.

"We've got a lot of playmakers and they finally showed up in the second half," said Southeast coach Tim Billings. "Tarik came through and did a great job and so did Adrian and Willie. And Jeromy throws a really great deep ball."

Ponder said Billings had plenty of choice words for the Indians at halftime after their lackluster first-half performance.

"Coach got on us. He ripped us," said Ponder with a grin. "I think we just came out sluggish in the first half. But the defense kept us in it and stepped up big time."

Said Billings of the first half, "I was very upset, but so happy. We could have been behind 28-3. The defense made some big plays to keep us in it."

It's no wonder the Indians felt fortunate to be tied at halftime. They were outgained in total yardage 213 to 90 over the first 30 minutes. And, thanks in part to great field position, the Salukis had possessions that reached, in order, the Southeast 3, 22, 31, 20 and 21 yard lines -- yet they managed only a field goal, thanks in large part to interceptions by Demar Winston and Mike Miller and a fumble recovery by Prince Anderson.

The Indians, meanwhile, had just one real first-half scoring opportunity, which they converted on a 41-yard field goal by true freshman Derek Kutz midway through the second quarter that tied the contest.

Southeast took the lead for good on the third play of the second half. On third-and-15, McDowell hit a wide-open Simpson down field and he ran untouched to the end zone for a 67-yard TD. Kutz booted the conversion to make it 10-3.

On the Indians' next possession, McDowell hit Simpson with a 15-yard scoring strike and Kutz converted for a 17-3 lead with 6:55 left in the third quarter.

The Indians pretty much iced the victory with 9:33 left in the final period as McDowell and Ponder hooked up on a 47-yard scoring strike, with Kutz converting, to make it 24-3.

Southeast took an intentional safety late in the contest after being backed up, but by that time the win was secured.

SIU did have two golden second-half scoring chances that reached inside the Southeast 20 when the outcome was still in doubt. But true freshman cornerback Dimitri Patterson deflected one pass on fourth down and intercepted another to end both threats.

The Salukis finished with two 100-yard rushers as tailback Tom Koutsos gained 114 yards and quarterback Madei Williams had an even 100. But no SIU player reached the end zone.

"The defense played great," said McDowell. "It was their game tonight."

Southeast linebacker Corey Mathis said the Indians' defense was confident the offense would eventually get its act together.

"We knew the offense somewhere down the line would come through for us," he said.