Southeast Missouri State football team gets expected road win against winless Austin Peay

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. -- The Southeast Missouri State football team didn't have to do anything special. The Redhawks just had to do what was expected.

What was expected was a defeat of the winless Austin Peay Governors, and the Redhawks lived up to that expectation with a 44-15 victory Saturday at Governors Stadium.

"At the end of the day we did what's hard to do in college football -- do what you should do. We should have soundly beat this team, and we did that," Southeast coach Tom Matukewicz said. "It's tough. You come out and they have success. It's a game, and then all of a sudden a dysfunctional team the wheels start coming off. But the leadership took over, and we calmed the storm and then we got after them."

The win was Southeast's first on the road this season, and it didn't come easy early.

The Govs got on the board on their first drive of the game. Quarterback Timarious Mitchell hit tight end James Coleman for a 13-yard touchdown pass to cap a 14-play, 65-yard drive. The PAT failed, so APSU led 6-0 with 8 minutes, 50 seconds left in the first quarter.

The teams exchanged punts on their next drives before the Redhawks answered.

Southeast got some help on the drive from an APSU unsportsmanlike conduct on a third-and-15 play and a facemark on second-and-18 that gave the Redhawks first downs.

The Redhawks had back-to-back holding penalties later in the drive that set up first-and-26 from the Southeast 41.

A 10-yard pass to senior receiver Paul McRoberts and a 51-yard run by junior running back Tremane McCullough up the right sideline moved Southeast to the Govs' 8.

Three plays later, freshman quarterback Dante Vandeven scored from the 4 with 1:15 left in the first. The Redhawks' 7-6 lead stood until the end of the first.

"I feel like we definitely improved," McRoberts said. "Coach wanted us to come out here and get it on and put a great game together, and I feel like we actually did that. A little rough start at the beginning with penalties and everything, but I feel like overall, we did a great job coming out, moving the ball."

The Govs began the second quarter with second-and-2 from their 43, and running back Kendall Morris picked up the first down on a 16-yard run. A personal foul and unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Southeast helped move APSU inside the red zone to the 13.

Morris punched it in from 1 yard out to put the Govs back on top. Their 2-point conversion pass failed to make it 12-7 with 11:42 left in the half.

The Redhawks needed just eight plays to go 75 yards on the ensuing drive, which ended with a 25-yard touchdown catch by sophomore receiver Tyler McLemore. McLemore made the catch near the Redhawks' sideline and skirted the sideline and into the end zone for his first career touchdown, giving Southeast the lead for good at 14-12 with 8:35 left in the half.

Tay Bender came in at QB for the final two plays and picked up a first down with a 6-yard run. He followed that up with a 3-yard touchdown run with 3:49 left that made it 21-12.

APSU quickly moved down to the Southeast 2 with catches of 12 and 66 yards by Jared Beard. A rush for a loss of 1 and a pair of incomplete passes made the Govs settle for a 20-yard field goal that cut Southeast's lead to 21-15 with 55 seconds remaining before halftime.

Redhawks kicker Ryan McCrum made a 44-yard field goal as time expired in the half to give Southeast a 24-15 lead at the break.

Southeast's defense shut out APSU the remainder of the game and held the Govs to 20 yards rushing and 38 yards passing after the break.

"Coach [Bryce] Saia and the staff did a good job. We had to adjust a couple things schematically," Matukewicz said. "They did that at halftime, and then I think we motivated them verbally."

The Redhawks recorded five sacks for 33 yards in the second half and had 10 tackles for loss.

"We knew we were under-performing a little bit in the first half," junior linebacker Roper Garrett said. "Our coach gave us a little talking to, got us back to where we needed to be and got our heads back in the game, and after that point, we just took what he said to heart and came out and played the style of football we know how to play."

Southeast went up 31-15 and McRoberts broke the school's all-time receiving record on a 2-yard pass by Vandeven with 7:34 left in the third. The touchdown catch was McRoberts' 27th of his career.

"Our offense definitely came out and played all four quarters and pieced them together," Vandeven said. "I think the defense really helped us out a lot in the second half. They didn't score on us the second half, so that gave a lot of opportunity to the offense to really come out and drive the ball down the field. Great job up front, great job by the receivers. Everybody did their part. They won their job, and that's how we won."

Garrett, who finished with a game-high 11 tackles, sacked Trey Taylor, who replaced an injured Mitchell, forcing a fumble with 7:12 remaining. Sophomore linebacker Chad Meredith scooped it up and returned it 1 yard to make it 37-15.

"I had my eyes targeted on him, and I was blitzing. And I came through the hole," Garrett said, his eyes lighting up. "It was pretty clean. I came through, and I hit him.

"I thought it was a sack, honestly, and I got up and I just hear a bunch of people screaming. And I look over and Chad has it in the end zone," Garrett added with a laugh. "I was like, 'Well, touchdown,' and went and celebrated with him, and it was awesome."

Southeast junior linebacker Terrance Hill sacked Taylor on fourth down on the Govs' next drive, and the Redhawks went 35 yards and capped the scoring with a 5-yard touchdown run by sophomore transfer Will Young.

It's the first time Southeast has won two consecutive games this season. The Redhawks are now 4-5 and 3-2 in the Ohio Valley Conference. APSU dropped to 0-10 and 0-7 in conference.

"I feel like for a team that knows it's coming to the end of the season, I feel like we're keeping our composure and steady fighting to close the season out with a good record," McRoberts said. "Most teams knowing that they only have two or three games left will probably let up and be like, 'Man, we're just trying to get the season over.' But my team is really looking forward to just growth and getting better instead of shutting down. We want to keep going. We've got two tough games coming up, but we're going to attack it with the same mentality that we've been, focusing on us and just trying to get better."

Southeast travels to Jacksonville, Alabama, where it will face No. 1 Jacksonville State on Saturday.

"It's good to win two in a row, definitely," Vandeven said. "This next week is going to have to be a picture-perfect week for us in practice. It really is. It's going to have to be fundamentally sound, everything has to be in order, fast-paced. We've got to get stuff done next week."