Southeast Missouri State football team's rally falls just short vs. ISU

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- With no time remaining on the clock and his team trailing by one on the road to nationally-ranked Indiana State, Southeast Missouri State football coach Tom Matukewicz chose to try to get the ball in his top playmaker's hands on a two-point conversion try.

True freshman quarterback and Jackson graduate Dante Vandeven, who played most of the second half in his Redhawks debut on Saturday, took the snap and threw toward senior receiver Paul McRoberts in the right corner of the end zone.

The pass sailed high and fell incomplete, and the No. 23/25 Sycamores held on for a 29-28 victory at Memorial Stadium in Terre Haute, Indiana.

"Just feel like you're on the road, against a top 25, let's get it to one play to win the game instead of going to overtime," Matukewicz said. "Just felt good about it. We made the first one. (Defensive coordinator Bryce) Saia, the first time we went for two, switched over and got me on the headset and just reminded me of how we've won some big games in the past on the road and to be aggressive, and he was right on."

McRoberts, who had caught the touchdown pass as time expired to pull the Redhawks within one, said the ISU defense was tipped off to where he was running because he'd lined up on the inside.

"It's a chance. I just failed them a little bit," said McRoberts, who finished with 100 yards receiving on seven catches. "Can't complain about holding or nothing, it was just they had great defense at the end."

The Redhawks had taken the ball over with 41 seconds remaining and trailing 29-22 after an ISU touchdown.

Vandeven began the 57-yard drive with a 19-yard pass to McRoberts before facing a fourth-and-9 from the ISU 37 with 8 seconds remaining three plays later.

Vandeven hit receiver Darrius Darden-Box for an 11-yard pass with two seconds left to pick up the first down.

Southeast then called three consecutive timeouts before the final play. Vandeven threw to McRoberts in the middle as time expired, and McRoberts caught it and lunged into the end zone.

"I was ready to get that play on the way," Vandeven said of the timeouts. "I was ready to see what would happen and put my best effort out there. Paul came down with a great catch and got in the end zone. He's a playmaker. I can throw him the ball every single time and he's going to make something happen."

Southeast took its first lead of the second half on its previous drive in the fourth quarter.

Vandeven converted on third-and-6 to get to the ISU 35 before running back Tremane McCullough had consecutive carries of 10, 8 and 10 yards to set up fullback Lewis Washington's 1-yard touchdown run to complete a 66-yard drive. Vandeven's pass to Darden-Box in the end zone for the two-point conversion put Southeast up 22-21 with 2:24 to go.

The Sycamores answered in just six plays and 1:46.

Quarterback Matt Adam began the drive with passes of 10 and 25 yards.

The Southeast defense had ISU on fourth-and-3 from the Redhawks' 33 following an ISU timeout with 49 seconds remaining, but Adam found Gary Owens in the end zone for a 33-yard touchdown. Adam's pass to Kelvin Cook was good for the two-point conversion and a 29-22 ISU lead before Southeast's final touchdown drive.

"We just had a field-side blitz and they just called a perfect play against it," said linebacker Roper Garrett, who had a game-high 12 tackles. "They rolled out to the boundary, and that just happens sometimes. You can't be perfect every time. That's not on one person. That's on all of us. Stuff just happens."

The Redhawks trailed 21-7 entering the fourth quarter, but Southeast cut the deficit to seven with a 57-yard, 10-play drive that began at the start of the quarter. Southeast converted on third-down twice -- one a 10-yard pass to McRoberts and another a 4-yard Vandeven run -- and scored on an 18-yard run by McCullough with 9:29 remaining to go up 22-21.

Southeast led 7-0 after the first half. Starting quarterback Tay Bender faked a handoff and took the first play of the drive 80 yards for the longest rushing touchdown by a quarterback in Southeast history with 2:23 left in the first quarter. The Redhawks missed a chance to add to the lead when Ryan McCrum missed a 41-yard field goal at the end of the half.

Southeast, which finished with 465 yards of offense, had 186 total yards of offense in the first 30 minutes of the game.

The first-half shutout of the Sycamores was something that hadn't been done since 2013 by Western Illinois.

"It was just stuff wasn't clicking like passes or runs or things like that," McRoberts said. "They studied us pretty good, so they knew what we were doing and that's kudos to them. I feel like we just had too much of a slow boil. We were too relaxed. We need to come out on fire."

Bender, who completed 10 of 18 passes for 83 yards in the game and rushed for 72 net yards, led the Redhawks' offense to the ISU 16-yard line on the first drive of the second half before he was intercepted by Travis Starks in the end zone.

Starks returned it 100 yards to even it at 7 with 11:15 to go in the third.

Vandeven made his collegiate debut on the next drive, going three-and-out.

"We know things are going to happen and at that moment it was like, 'Aw, man,' but I could've made that tackle, I could've made a play, but it was just a great run by the defender to pick it and take it to the crib," McRoberts said. "... It wasn't in like a real panic, it was just like, 'Alright, now we know what we've got to do.' It was a reassurance of what we needed to do and what we had to do in order to stay in this game and (try) to win."

The Sycamores took a 14-7 lead on a 13-yard run by Marlon Fleming four minutes later, and Vandeven threw an interception on the Redhawks' ensuing drive.

ISU faced third-and-17 five plays into the next drive, but Adam completed a 57-yard pass to 6-foot-5 receiver Tonyan Robert. Robert leaped up to make the grab over safety Eriq Moore and move the ball to the Southeast 30. Owens capped the drive with a 9-yard touchdown run as time expired in the third quarter.

"We had a guy there, and that guy was like 6-foot-20 and out-leaped us for the ball," Matukewicz said of the 57-yard catch. "I mean, there's a reason they're Top 25. That quarterback made a lot of plays. I think defensively they're frustrated they didn't get three takeaways, and then we gave up some big plays in critical situations."

Adam completed 20 of 29 passes for 252 yards. He was intercepted once and sacked five times.

ISU, without starting running back LeMonte Booker, compiled 392 yards of offense as it improved to 2-1 on the season.

The Redhawks (1-2) host Division II Shorter University in their final non-conference game of the regular season on Saturday. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.

"I think our locker room is not, like, devastated," Matukewicz said. "Our locker room is disappointed. So the takeaway for me is we have a good football team. I think we found a lot more out about our team, and we have to play better. When you go on the road at a Top 25, the margin of victory just shrinks, and so you can't turn the ball over. You've got to make a field goal, just things like that that are in our control we've just got to do a better job of."