Southeast Missouri State football team earns first victory

The Southeast Missouri State football team finally broke into the win column.

A dominant, ball-control offense led by senior quarterback Matt Scheible and an improved defense were the keys Saturday night.

Southeast piled up 541 yards and assembled five touchdown drives of at least 65 yards to beat visiting Eastern Illinois 37-30.

Southeast Missouri State's Trey Lewis tries to evade Eastern Illinois' Randolph Tribble during a run in the second quarter of a game on Saturday, Oct. 1, 2011, in Cape Girardeau. (Kristin Eberts)

An announced crowd of 7,757 at Houck Stadium saw the Redhawks move to 1-3 overall and 1-1 in Ohio Valley Conference play. EIU fell to 1-4 and 0-3 with its fourth consecutive loss.

"It feels good to get that first one after we were so close last week [a 38-31 loss at Tennessee Tech]," junior offensive guard Colt McCauley said.

The Redhawks punished EIU's defense by rushing for 411 yards, led by Scheible's career-high 161 yards on 19 carries. He scored two touchdowns, on runs of 71 and 18 yards.

Southeast Missouri State's Matt Scheible, left, and Dominic Maldonado congratulate Marq Goodlitt, center, on scoring a touchdown against Eastern Illinois during the second quarter of a game on Saturday, Oct. 1, 2011, in Cape Girardeau. SEMO won 37-30. (Kristin Eberts)

Junior tailback Levi Terrell had his second consecutive 100-yard game with 106 yards on 16 carries.

Redshirt freshman fullback Ron Coleman powered his way to 77 yards on 18 attempts. Junior tailback Renard Celestin added 71 yards on just two carries, thanks to a 67-yard burst.

"Credit goes to those front five guys," Scheible said about Southeast's emerging offensive line that returned just one starter from last year. "They played their butts off."

Scheible added 130 yards passing and three scores. He completed 14 of 18 attempts. Two of the TDs went to sophomore wide receiver D.J. Foster.

"That's still the best defense in the world, the defense that's on the sidelines," said Southeast coach Tony Samuel, noting the Redhawks' 36 minute, 5 second to 23:55 advantage in time of possession.

Southeast's defense, gouged for more than 500 yards against Tennessee Tech last week, gave up just 278 yards Saturday. Only 118 of those yards came after halftime.

"We just said we were going to come out even stronger than the first half," Southeast junior linebacker Blake Peiffer said. "After we stopped them on that first series [of the second half], we just took the momentum and rode with it."

Southeast trailed 10-7 in the closing seconds of the first half and appeared content to enter the locker room down three when it faced third-and-14 from its 31 with 39 seconds left.

It looked like Southeast would let the clock run out, but EIU called a timeout. Celestin then broke off his 67-yard run, which led to Scheible's 2-yard touchdown pass to junior college transfer tight end Marq Goodlitt for a 14-10 lead with 23 seconds remaining.

EIU answered with sophomore Tavares Crawford's 83-yard kickoff return for a touchdown with 10 seconds left, so the Panthers led 17-14 at the intermission.

"Just before the half alone was pretty interesting," Samuel said. "We all know how this league is. We're not going to have games that aren't close."

Things remained close for most of the second half, but the Redhawks dominated play. They held the ball for nearly 20 minutes compared to less than 11 minutes for EIU.

Southeast's defense forced a three-and-out on the opening possession of the third quarter, giving the offense possession at its 25-yard line.

Scheible ripped off a career-long 71-yard run on second down for a touchdown and a 21-17 advantage that Southeast never relinquished.

Scheible, who virtually was untouched on the option keeper around the left side, credited his blocking and made fun of his lack of blazing speed.

"I was looking for somebody to pitch to," Scheible with a laugh. "It was so long. As I was running down there, I said 'I'm so slow.'"

Junior linebacker Darrick Borum intercepted a pass deep in EIU territory on the Panthers' next possession, setting up junior Drew Geldbach's 20-yard field goal to make it 24-17.

Crawford struck again on the ensuing kickoff with a 56-yard return. A facemask penalty put the ball on the Southeast 19, and EIU capitalized with a touchdown.

But Borum blocked the PAT, so the Redhawks maintained a 24-23 advantage midway through the third quarter.

"We've got to clean that up," Samuel said about the kickoff coverage. "There's always work to do."

Southeast responded with its longest drive of the night, a 93-yarder that ended with Scheible's 31-yard touchdown pass to Foster. Geldbach missed the PAT, leaving the Redhawks up 30-23.

The Redhawks' defense forced punts on EIU's next two drives, with Geldbach having a 45-yard field-goal attempt blocked in between those two possessions.

Southeast then went up 37-23 with an 83-yard drive that chewed up more than six minutes and ended on Scheible's 18-yard TD run with 1:55 remaining.

EIU drove for a touchdown that sliced the deficit to 37-30 with 1:04 left.

The Redhawks recovered the onside kick. Three bruising Coleman runs netted a first down, and one Scheible kneel down sealed the victory.

"He ran the ball extremely well, and he's a great blocker," Samuel said about Coleman. "He made quite a few very important first downs."

The last one being the biggest.

"We needed that one under our belt," Peiffer said about the victory. "We finally got it done."