SE FAILS TO FLAG DOWN RACERS; MURRAY STATE HOLDS OFF INDIANS 17-3

MURRAY, Ky. -- Southeast Missouri State University's football team finally scored against Murray State Saturday night.

But that still couldn't prevent a fifth consecutive loss to the Racers.

In a game that featured impressive hard-hitting defensive play by both squads, the Racers' `D' won out in the end as MSU prevailed 17-3 in the Ohio Valley Conference opener for both teams.

The two-time defending OVC champion Racers extended their conference winning streak to 17 games in front of 6,951 fans at Stewart Stadium.

MSU evened its overall record at 2-2 while the Indians fell to 1-2.

Unlike the last two seasons against the Racers when the Indians failed to score while being dismantled by a combined 50-0, this time Southeast put up quite a challenge and the outcome was very much in doubt until the closing seconds when the Racers scored a defensive touchdown to seal the verdict.

"I'm proud of the team. We hung in there til the end. They all fought hard in the second half," said Southeast coach John Mumford. "We talked about hanging in there and needing to put two touchdowns on the board to win.

"Our defense gutted it out and battled and our offense put something together. We just have to make more consistent plays and get in the end zone."

Southeast's offense sputtered the entire first half, managing just 28 yards. Conversely, the Racers were able to move well most the first half, getting 221 yards.

But a bend-don't-break Indian defense was able to limit the Racers to a 10-0 halftime lead, even though MSU spent most of the first half in Southeast territory.

The Racers scored on a 35-yard Rob Hart field goal in the closing seconds of the first quarter and got a 25-yard Dan Loyd to Brandon Warfield touchdown pass with just over five minutes left in the second period.

But Southeast was able to prevent MSU from scoring on first-half possessions that reached the Southeast 5 and 13-yard lines.

"I felt pretty good about things at halftime," Mumford said. "The defense was able to hold them out. We just needed to get some things going,."

Ironically, Southeast's offense finally started to move the football in the third quarter after last year's starting quarterback Justin Martini took over for a woozy Heath Graham.

Graham, who was just 1 of 5 for 12 yards, was knocked out of the game early in the second half after taking a hard hit that resulted in a roughing the passer penalty on MSU. He spent the rest of the night on the sidelines.

"Heath got knocked silly on the late hit. He was pretty much out of it," said Mumford. "Justin came in and did a very nice job leading the team down the field."

Martini, who wound up 11 of 29 for 112 yards, drove the Indians to their only points of the game late in the third quarter.

Starting at the Southeast 20, Martini hit Dante Bryant with four passes, but the march stalled and Eric Warren kicked a 36-yard field goal with 2:16 left in the period to make it 10-3.

The Indians had several more decent opportunities to mount a potential game-tying drive, once taking over at the MSU 47 after a punt and once taking over at their own 46 after a Fred Hambrick interception. But Southeast failed to penetrate the MSU 40 either time.

As Southeast's defense continued to throttle the Racers in the second half, the Indians' final gasp came with 36 seconds left as they took over at their 36 after a punt.

Martini hit Leslie Weaver with a 23-yard pass that moved the ball to the MSU 36 with 22 seconds remaining and the Indians were still very much alive.

But Martini was sacked back to the 43 on the next play and was then hammered while throwing and the wobbly pass was picked off by MSU linebacker Ronnie Merritt, who went 55 yards with the clinching score with just two seconds left.

Southeast wound up with 142 total yards, 114 coming in the second half. MSU had only 41 yards in thew second half to finish with 242.