JUST SHORT OF HOME: INDIANS DROP CLOSE HOMECOMING GAME 21-19

A couple of inches is all that separated Southeast Missouri State University's football team from a potential homecoming victory Saturday afternoon.

Corey Williams -- who rushed for a career-high 185 yards -- was stopped just short of the goal line on a two-point conversion try with a little more than four minutes left in the fourth quarter.

Middle Tennessee then did the rest, running out all but 17 seconds of the clock as the Blue Raiders held on for a 21-19 victory in front of 6,827 fans at Houck Stadium.

Southeast, losing for the third straight time, fell to 3-6 overall and 2-4 in Ohio Valley Conference play. With just two games left, the Indians are assured of a losing season.

The Raiders, playing their final season in the OVC before moving up to the Division I-A level next year, evened their overall record at 4-4 and pushed their league mark to 4-2.

"Our guys played extremely hard and gave a great effort," said Southeast head coach John Mumford. "We were so close. It all boiled down to a few big plays, as most games do. But we have to find a way to win these kinds of games."

After being outscored 83-17 in their previous two games, the Indians put together a spirited effort in their final home game of the season.

"Our seniors were playing their last home game and they did a super job in practice this week," Mumford said. "We wanted so bad to win it for the seniors."

MTSU appeared to have taken control of the contest by scoring a controversial touchdown with 10:27 left in the fourth quarter.

Quarterback Wes Counts hit Sulecio Sanford with a 77-yard TD pass. A penalty flag flew on the play at about the Southeast 30-yard line and the original indication was a clip on the Raiders. But after a discussion among the officials, the flag was waved off and the touchdown stood, putting MTSU up 21-10.

"It was thoroughly a bench call," said an irritated Mumford, meaning that he felt the Raiders' coaches had influenced the officials into waving off the penalty. "It's embarrassing to call that off. The explanation I got was he (the MTSU player) hit our man in the front. If that's the case, I don't know why he threw the flag in the first place."

But the Indians were far from finished. Nick Reggio's 32-yard field goal with 7:41 left made it 21-13.

After a poor MTSU punt traveled only 14 yards, Southeast took over at the Raiders' 38-yard line. On the next play, Williams found a big hole up the middle and rambled 38 yards to the end zone, pulling the Indians to within 21-19 with 4:24 remaining.

The Indians tried virtually the same play for the two-point conversion and a possible tie -- but Williams was stopped just short.

"I figured they'd know we would run that play again because we had been running it a lot," said Williams. "That was the play I had been picking up a lot of yards on but I just couldn't make it in."

MTSU picked up two first downs to virtually run out the clock. Southeast did get the ball back on its 13 with 17 seconds left. After a short completion, quarterback Bobby Brune was intercepted to end the Indians' comeback hopes.

"We came up just short again," said Williams, recalling some earlier narrow setbacks the Indians have suffered this year. "It hurts that we've been coming up short like this."

The Raiders scored on their first offensive play of the game as Counts hit Kendall Newson with a 56-yard touchdown pass just 2:51 into the contest.

Brune's 3-yard run with 5:48 left in the opening quarter made it 7-7 and Reggio's 38-yard field goal just 48 seconds before halftime gave the Indians a 10-7 lead at the break.

Counts scored on a 17-yard run early in the third quarter to put the Raiders ahead 14-10.

The Indians appeared to be driving for a go-ahead touchdown early in the final period but Williams fumbled a pitch from Brune inside MTSU's 20.

"That was totally my fault," Williams said. "Bobby made a great pitch. I took my eyes off it for a second as I was getting ready to hit the sideline."

Counts, a redshirt freshman, threw for a career-high 314 yards as he completed 24 of 32 passes. The Raiders rushed for just 89 yards.

Southeast did the bulk of its damage on the ground as Williams led the way to a 254-yard effort. Brune passed for 120 yards, completing 12 of 16.