Southeast football team survives Tennessee State's second-half rally

Southeast Missouri State had plenty of chances to administer a knockout blow.

The Redhawks failed to deliver despite dominating Tennessee State statistically -- yet they lived to tell about it as their remarkable football season continued.

Southeast survived a big rally by the visiting Tigers to hold on for a 19-17 victory Saturday night.

"It was a little more exciting than I would like," said junior quarterback Matt Scheible after the Redhawks built a 19-3 halftime lead. "But these past two years I've been here we lose games like this."

The Redhawks aren't losing them any longer. They improved to 5-1 overall with the program's first five-game winning streak since moving up to Division I-AA in 1991.

Southeast quarterback Matt Scheible maneuvers the ball around Tennessee State defender Joseph Wylie Saturday, October 9, 2010 at Houck Stadium. (Laura Simon)

Southeast also continued its best Ohio Valley Conference start since joining the league in 1991. The Redhawks are a first-place 4-0 in OVC play.

"You have to win these close ones," Southeast coach Tony Samuel said.

Southeast played its first game since entering the national rankings for the first time since 2003. They are No. 25 in the Sports Network poll.

Perhaps appropriately, the Redhawks were cheered on by an announced crowd of 10,316 at Houck Stadium, the third-largest in school history.

"It was amazing," said senior tailback Henry Harris, who rushed for 188 yards on 29 carries and scored a touchdown as he became the first player in Southeast history to post five straight 100-yard rushing games. "It's a good feeling to have the support."

Southeast quarterback Matt Scheible, top, gets taken down by Tennessee State defender Calvin McNairl Saturday, October 9, 2010 Houck Stadium. (Laura Simon)

Said Samuel, in his fifth season at Southeast: "That was a great crowd. Loud. It was a college atmosphere. It's been a dream of mine for five years."

With Scheible, the OVC's top rushing quarterback, adding 128 yards on 16 carries and a touchdown -- it was his second 100-yard game of the season -- Southeast piled up a whopping 390 yards on the ground to finish with 439 yards of total offense.

"We didn't really find an answer to Scheible," TSU coach Rod Reed said. "Hat's off to him. He did a heck of a job.

"I told our football team this was going to be the best 1-2 duo [Harris and Scheible] we've seen. They proved it tonight."

TSU, which had been leading the OVC in both total defense and total offense, had just 103 first-half yards and finished with 299.

Southeast senior Abraham Woodard runs the ball down the field as his teammate clears a path Saturday, October 9, 2010 as the Redhawks take on Tennessee State at Houck Stadium. (Laura Simon)

Yet several missed opportunities by the Redhawks and gritty play by the Tigers (3-3, 0-2) combined to make things interesting late.

"If you look at those numbers, you'd think we won by a couple touchdowns," Samuel said. "They're a good football team. They weren't going to quit."

Harris made perhaps his only mistake of the night when he fumbled inside TSU's 35-yard line on the opening possession of the second half.

The Tigers drove 67 yards for a touchdown to make it 19-10.

Southeast's next possession carried inside TSU's 25-yard line before stalling. Sophomore kicker Drew Geldbach, who earlier had a PAT blocked, had a 40-yard field-goal attempt blocked.

"Enough of those little things can come back to haunt you," Samuel said.

TSU was driving again when sophomore safety Tylor Brock intercepted his third pass in two weeks and OVC-leading fourth of the season to stymie the Tigers.

"He overthrew it," Brock said of TSU junior quarterback Jeremy Perry. "I took advantage of it."

But Southeast was forced to punt after a rare three-and-out. TSU followed with an 82-yard touchdown drive to make it 19-17 with 6 minutes, 43 seconds remaining in the contest.

TSU then recovered an onside kick but was whistled for being offsides and had to kick again, this time going deep with it.

Scheible threw his first interception of the season -- and first in nine games dating back to last year -- to give TSU the ball at its 37-yard line with 6:03 left.

The Tigers moved past midfield, and lined up to go for it on fourth-and-6 at the Southeast 48. But they were penalized for a false start and chose to punt.

Southeast regained possession with 4:04 left and never relinquished the ball.

The Redhawks picked up two first downs, both by Harris. The first one was especially crucial. On third-and-3 from his 24, Harris appeared to be stopped at the line of scrimmage but somehow surged for five yards.

"Finish. We've been preaching that all offseason and summer," Harris said. "Last year we didn't finish."

After the second first down, Southeast was able to run out the clock with three Scheible kneel-downs.

"I was never getting nervous," Brock said of TSU's late charge. "I was pretty confident our defense would step up."

Southeast's resurgent defense has done that all season. Saturday was no different.

"I feel like we've really stepped it up," said senior defensive tackle Maurice Lyles, who added of the five-game winning streak: "I'm just happy to be a part of it."