Southeast Missouri State football team prepares for final home game

Southeast Missouri State redshirt freshman quarterback Scott Lathrop said the Redhawks will have extra incentive for their last home game of the season.

Saturday's Ohio Valley Conference contest against 23rd-ranked Eastern Kentucky at Houck Stadium will mark the final home appearance for 23 Southeast seniors who will be recognized before the 1 p.m. kickoff.

"It's a big game. We want to win for the seniors," Lathrop said following Saturday's 48-27 victory at Austin Peay that snapped the Redhawks' three-game losing streak. "We want to give it our all."

Southeast coach Tony Samuel said Monday that senior days are always memorable.

"Any time you go through it, you'll remember it. I went through it once. I still remember key pieces," said Samuel, who played at Nebraska in the mid-1970s. "It's an emotional thing. Time flies for them. You always try to tell them that."

The Redhawks have an especially notable senior class this year featuring a blend of players who have been at Southeast since they were freshmen and junior-college transfers.

"It's a very good group of kids," Samuel said. "We've got some kids who have done some things, some four-year starters."

Thirteen of the seniors are starters, including offensive regulars tailback Levi Terrell, tight end Marq Goodlitt, tackle Evan Conrad, and guards Colt McCauley and Pete Niggemann.

The defensive starters are ends Justin Love and Alonzo Nevarez. tackles Joe Malolo and Taylor Ramsey, linebackers Blake Peiffer and Darrick Borum, and safeties Tylor Brock and Branden Spann.

Conrad and Love are both four-year starters, Conrad having made 40 consecutive starts. Borum, Brock and Peiffer are all three-year starters.

Peiffer, a Jackson High School graduate, made several All-American teams last season after he led the OVC and ranked third nationally with a school-record 151 tackles. He is second in the OVC and 13th nationally this year with 88 tackles.

Peiffer is just the seventh Southeast player with at least 300 career tackles. His 330 tackles rank sixth in program history.

Brock, an All-American following his sophomore season, is tied for eighth nationally with four interceptions.

Brock is tied for fifth in career interceptions at Southeast with 10 and is third in career interception return yards with 282.

Terrell, the nation's ninth-leading rusher, needs just 19 more yards to eclipse 1,000 yards for the season. The Nebraska-Omaha transfer, who joined Southeast last year after his former school dropped football, has rushed for more than 100 yards in five straight games -- every OVC contest.

The senior group also includes two of Southeast's regular specialists in kicker Drew Geldbach and long snapper Brandon Gabbard.

Other seniors are tailback Renard Celestin, wide receiver Ola Alli, offensive linemen Josh Jourdan, Dominic Maldonado and Matt Shannon, defensive tackles Josyah O'Keefe-Lopez and Quinn Perry, and linebacker Derek Walker, a Central High School graduate.

Maldonado and Shannon were starters for the Redhawks who have missed their entire final collegiate campaigns with injuries suffered during preseason practice.

Lathrop, in addition to wanting to send the seniors out in style, said the Redhawks (3-5, 2-3 OVC) still have their sights on a winning record. They need to beat their final three opponents to pull that off.

After playing Eastern Kentucky (6-3, 4-2 OVC), Southeast ends the year with two road games, Nov. 10 at Eastern Illinois (5-3, 4-1) and Nov. 17 at Murray State (3-5, 2-3).

"Our goal is to get to a winning season," Lathrop said.