SE drops 4th straight

Falling behind any team by 28 points -- let alone a squad as powerful as Eastern Kentucky -- is almost always a recipe for disaster.

Southeast Missouri State University found itself in that situation Saturday night and, even though the Indians staged a valiant rally, they could never crawl out of the big hole.

The result was a 42-24 EKU victory in front of 5,650 fans at Houck Stadium. The Colonels, ranked 23rd and 25th nationally in the two major NCAA Division I-AA polls, improved to 6-2 overall and 4-1 in Ohio Valley Conference play.

Southeast, which has never beaten the Colonels in 12 tries, suffered its fourth straight loss. The Indians fell to 3-7 overall and 1-5 in the OVC as they concluded their conference schedule.

"No question, that was the story of the game," said Southeast coach Tim Billings of his squad's big deficit. "And the sad thing is, we didn't play that bad and we were behind 28-0. They hit some big plays on us."

The Indians, who faced that 28-point deficit late in the first half, managed to pull within 28-7 at halftime and then at least made EKU sweat by closing to within 28-21 early in the fourth quarter. But the comeback stopped there.

"Give Southeast credit. They came after us," said EKU coach Roy Kidd, the nation's third-winningest active coach who compiled his 305th career victory Saturday. "I could tell our kids at halftime thought the game was over. I told them it wasn't."

Hudson leads charge

A bit too much C.J. Hudson, along with some big plays in the passing game, allowed the Colonels to hold off Southeast and keep their I-AA playoff hopes alive.

Hudson, a redshirt freshman tailback who is the OVC's leading rusher, piled up a career-high 213 yards on 28 carries, including a 94-yard touchdown jaunt early in the game that got the Colonels off and running.

EKU is generally not known as a passing team, but -- with the Indians crowding the line of scrimmage to try and limit the Colonels' vaunted running attack -- quarterback Travis Turner completed eight of 11 attempts for 169 yards and two touchdowns.

"They put eight, nine men on the line and said you're going to have to throw the ball," Kidd said. "We finally did and hit some plays."

Southeast was actually able to move the ball fairly well against the OVC's No. 1 defense, gaining 315 total yards (the Colonels had been giving up a little less than 247 per game). EKU had 398 total yards.

"I thought our defense played pretty good, except for the big plays," Billings said. "Our defensive front played well, but our secondary stunk it up in the first half."

Southeast's rushing attack was led by Curtis Cooper with 75 yards on 18 carries as he became just the third player in Southeast history to gain more than 1,000 yards in a season. Cooper now has 1,069.

After Hudson's 94-run scamper on third-and-9 less than five minutes into the contest, EKU converted two big passes on third down to keep scoring drives going.

First, Turner hit Aaron McKee for 41 yards on third-and-8. That kept alive a 93-yard drive, capped by Hudson's 2-yard run that made it 14-0 late in the opening quarter.

Early in the second period, Turner hit Allen Evans for 32 yards on third-and-15. That kept alive a 57-yard drive, capped by Turner's 2-yard pass to Tom Mabey that made it 21-0.

When J.D. Jewell intercepted a Jeromy McDowell pass and raced 86 yards for a touchdown with 2:44 left before halftime, the Colonels led 28-0 and it looked like they would be able to name the final score.

But Southeast regrouped. Backup quarterback Bobby Brune, who alternated with McDowell, led a 67-yard drive that ended with Cooper's 6-yard run just 17 seconds before the intermission. Derek Kutz kicked the first of his three conversions to make it 28-7 at the break.

Midway through the third quarter, Southeast recovered a muffed EKU punt at the Colonels' 28. Cooper scored from 2 yards out to make it 28-14.

Things got really interesting early in the final period when Iven Brown scored on a 36-yard run to pull the Indians within 28-21.

But that was as close as Southeast would get. McKee hauled in a 48-yard TD pass from Turner -- the ball was tipped by Mike Miller, who nearly came up with an interception, but it bounced right to McKee, who waltzed into the end zone -- to make it 35-21 with 10:10 left.

"We got a break there," said Kidd. "Their kid broke on the ball great and it looked like he was going to intercept it."

Kutz boomed a 45-yard field goal with 7:35 left to make it 35-24, but EKU controlled most of the rest of the clock and added a clinching TD in the closing moments.