INDIANS WHIP UT-MARTIN

The University of Tennessee-Martin came into Saturday night's football game against Southeast Missouri State with one of the nation's worst rushing defenses, allowing more than 350 yards per game on the ground.

And that trend continued as the Indians gutted the Skyhawks for 345 yards rushing during a 41-14 victory in front of 9,138 fans at Houck Stadium.

Southeast evened its overall record at 2-2 and its Ohio Valley Conference mark at 1-1. UTM fell to 0-3 overall, 0-1 in the league.

The Indians led just 20-14 at halftime but pulled away with a 21-0 edge in the second half.

Statistically, the game was a mismatch. The Indians finished with 495 total yards and held the Skyhawks to 139 yards. Southeast piled up 27 first downs to eight for the visitors.

"Overall, I thought it was a very good performance by us," said Southeast head coach John Mumford. "Our offensive line opened some big holes and we got a lot of running backs in the game and they all ran hard.

"Defensively, we really shut them down in the second half (limiting the Skyhawks to 17 yards). I thought our defense did a great job adjusting."

The victory was marred, however, by a dislocated left elbow suffered by tailback Corey Williams late in the game.

Williams, who rushed for 131 yards on 21 carries and matched his career high with four touchdowns, was in the contest when the Indians had the ball near the UTM goal line. Mumford was hoping Williams could match the Southeast individual single-game record of five touchdowns.

"I kind of kick myself in the butt for that," Mumford said. "Corey has got a scoring deal going and we wanted him to get it in there again."

Williams was taken to a hospital after being injured. Mumford said it depends on the severity of the injury as to how long Williams might be out.

Williams scored on runs of 6, 1, 4 and 3 yards. Broderick Benson gained 95 yards on 13 carries and caught a 1-yard touchdown pass from fourth-string, walkon quarterback Mike Gross, a redshirt freshman from Jackson seeing the first action of his Southeast career.

Nick Reggio added field goals of 25 and 43 yards.

Quarterback Kevin Seto, directing the Indians' offense well, completed nine of 16 passes for 120 yards. Seto played the entire first half but the Indians wound up using four quarterbacks. Leslie Weaver led Southeast receivers with three catches for 44 yards. Corey Chester and Dante Bryant both had two receptions.

"I think our offensive line set the tone early in the game," said Seto. "They were real physical and got our running game going. Our backs had some really big holes to run through.

"We knew Martin would be real hungry for a win. We just wanted to execute well and not make mistakes. I think we did that."

The Indians did not commit a turnover as the Skyhawks remained stuck on no forced turnovers for the season.

Southeast never trailed, but UTM at least made things interesting for a half, trailing by only six points at the intermission.

Williams scored on a 6-yard run just 2:37 into the game and Reggio's 25-yard field goal late in the first quarter made it 10-0.

Quarterback Brock Bailey scored on a 1-yard sneak early in the second period to pull the Skyhawks to within 10-7.

Williams' 1-yard run made it 17-7 but Tim Beattie answered with a 1-yard plunge to again pull the Skyhawks to within three at 17-14.

Reggio's 43-yard field goal just 30 seconds before halftime put the Indians up 20-14 at the break.

It was all Southeast in the second half, Williams scoring on runs of 4 and 3 yards and Gross hitting Benson with a 1-yard TD toss late in the contest.

"This game helps us a lot," said Bryant. "We played extremely well against Murray State (a 26-14 loss last week) and tonight we had another good performance so we proved we can be consistent."