Southeast Missouri State football team snaps losing streak to regional rival Southern Illinois

Southeast Missouri State kicker Ryan McCrum stepped onto the field at Houck Stadium on Saturday night on second down with the game tied at 24 and 5.6 seconds remaining.

McCrum, who had missed his previous three field goal attempts in the game, booted a 42-yard field goal through the uprights to give the Redhawks a 27-24 lead over Southern Illinois, which they held onto to beat the Salukis for the first time since 2010.

"Well I'm a loyal dude," Matukewicz said of sending McCrum out for the field goal. "I've got the same golf clubs I've ever had. I've got the same wife. If my wife jacks something up three times in a row you don't go to someone else. You stick with people and you coach them. That's what I told him. I said, "Hey, you missed three. You can't do nothing about those three, right? So just make sure those three don't make you miss the fourth one. You know how to do this. Go out there and win us a football game.' You're just proud of him and the kind of mentality it takes to just go through that pressure cooker and come out with a game-winning field goal."

SIU took over on its own 6-yard line with 1 minute, 30 seconds remaining in the game and went three-and-out.

The Redhawks' final drive began with 42 seconds left on the Saluki's 49.

Junior transfer quarterback Tay Bender completed a pass to sophomore Adrian Davis for 6 yards before being sacked for a loss of three.

Following a Southeast timeout with 31 seconds remaining, Bender hit running back DeMichael Jackson for a 14-yard pass on third-and-7 and followed it with a 7-yard completion to receiver Paul McRoberts to set up McCrum's game-winning field goal.

"We work every single week for two-minute situations, 38-second situations, so shout out to Coach Tuke for getting us ready for that situation," Bender said. "I wasn't overwhelmed at all. It was just like practice."

Southeast Missouri State quarterback Tay Bender takes the snap against Southern Illinois during the third quarter Saturday, Sept. 12, 2015 at Houck Stadium. (Fred Lynch)

The Redhawks scored first in the game on a 39-yard field goal by McCrum 2 minutes, 13 seconds into it to go up 3-0.

They extended the lead to 10-0 when cornerback Michael Ford returned a Mark Iannotti interception 21 yards on SIU's first play of the drive for a touchdown with 8:56 left in the first.

The Salukis capped a 10-play, 86-yard drive with an 18-yard touchdown pass from Iannotti to Daquan Isom with 5:17 left in the quarter.

The Redhawks were forced to punt on their next drive, but the defense forced its third turnover of the game on the first play of the ensuing Saluki drive.

Sophomore Kendall Donnerson forced a fumble and junior safety Eriq Moore scooped it up and returned it 42 yards for the score that made it 17-7 Southeast with 2:50 left in the quarter.

SIU started the second quarter on the Redhawks' 5 and needed just two runs from Iannotti, who scored on a 3-yard rush 32 seconds into the quarter to cut Southeast's lead to 17-14.

Southeast punted on its next two drives while the Salukis had to punt and Iannotti was intercepted by Moore at the Redhawks 6.

McCrum missed a 38-yard field goal with 1:00 remaining in the half and the Salukis needed just five plays to go 79 yards and score on an 18-yard touchdown reception by Darrell James to take a 21-17 lead into halftime.

"I'm exhausted," Matukewicz said. "That game had as big of swings as maybe any game I've ever been a part of, so that's the probably the biggest thing is just the way our kids handled the major swings. I just didn't see any flinching on the sideline, didn't see anybody turn on each other. We just kept working and did something that no one in that locker room has done -- beat SIU."

SIU extended its lead to 24-17 with 12:45 left in the third on a 46-yard field goal by Austin Johnson.

The Redhawks tied it at 24 when McRoberts caught a 13-yard pass from Bender in the end zone with 2:27 left in the third.

Southeast Missouri State's Paul McRoberts scores a touchdown against Southern Illinois before the PAT that would tie the game at 24-24 in the third quarter Saturday, Sept. 12, 2015 at Houck Stadium. (Fred Lynch)

"I seen his leverage and I took his leverage and beat him," McRoberts said. "He was grabbing me a little bit, but I had to fight him off and make a catch."

The Redhawks had a chance to regain the lead with 11:35 remaining, but McCrum missed the 39-yard field goal attempt.

Southeast's defense, which forced seven SIU turnovers, came up with its biggest stop with 3:27 left.

The Salukis had it on the Southeast 6 on third down when Donnerson sacked Iannotti and forced his second fumble of the game and junior linebacker Roper Garrett recovered it.

Southeast and SIU each punted on their next drives before the Redhawks made their final push down the field in the final minute.

"Never give up, keep fighting and stay positive," McRoberts said of what he learned from the game. "At the end of the day a slow boil, like Coach Tuke says, is really important. You can't come into the game all wired up and jittery because you'll die at the end. We stayed poised and calm and slow boiled at the beginning and we took it over at the end."

The Redhawks improved to 1-1 on the season and 40-35-8 all-time against the Salukis. The win was Southeast's first over SIU (0-2) at home since 2001.

Southeast returns to action at Indiana State on Saturday. Kickoff is set for 2:05 p.m. in Terre Haute, Indiana.

"They talk about the student-athlete experience, well, the most important thing of the student-athlete experience is they win because we work work way too hard," Matukewicz said. "It is too crushing when you don't win. To walk into a locker room after a win like that and just see the joy on those kids' face, you can't even explain it, so I'm happy for them. We talk about playing smart, playing hard, playing together. Well, we're playing hard and we're playing together, but man there's some stuff out there that we've got to get cleaned up, so I'll worry about that tomorrow. I've got 24 hours to enjoy this thing."