Southeast Missouri State football team's rally falls short at Eastern Illinois

CHARLESTON, Ill. -- Southeast Missouri State football coach Tom Matukewicz tried to look at the bright spots of his team's road loss to Eastern Illinois on Saturday.

The Redhawks were fortunate to have only been down by six points at halftime after a nearly non-existent offense, and they were fortunate that after getting behind by 20 points midway through the third quarter that they were able to come back and make it a one score game in the fourth.

But the end result of Southeast's trip to O'Brien Field was a 33-28 loss that ended with a last-second heave to the end zone and dropped the Redhawks to 2-4 and 1-1 in the Ohio Valley Conference.

"Well, what I told the team is there's a lot to be proud of. I've been on teams that you start that bad and in the first quarter they folded and get blown out," Matukewicz said. "It's a three-score game and we end up making it a Hail Mary, and so I love that about our team. I just told them, 'We didn't lose the game. We just ran out of time.' We have 30-40 more seconds on that clock, we win that football game, and so now we've just got to learn to play better. We didn't play well, but it wasn't like what they did. The penalties and stuff that they did was different. What we did is just we turned guys loose in coverage, we miss a block and a guy gets sacked in the backfield -- just things that Year 2 happens."

Southeast faced a 27-20 deficit when EIU's Addison Bounds was left wide open for a 65-yard touchdown with 6 minutes, 34 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

Southeast Missouri State's Paul McRoberts hauls in an 8-yard pass from Dante Vandeven above Eastern Illinois Antoine Johnson for a touchdown during the fourth quarter Saturday, Oct. 10, 2015 in Charleston, Illinois. (Fred Lynch)

Redhawks quarterback Dante Vandeven completed passes of 15 and 38 yards to Paul McRoberts to start the next drive and move to the Panthers' 16-yard line. Three plays later, Vandeven threw a pass to fullback Lewis Washington, who dove toward the end zone and hit the pylon for the first receiving touchdown of his career, cutting the deficit to 27-14 with 4:23 left in the third.

After forcing the Panthers to punt on their next drive, Southeast put together a 48-yard drive that spanned the final two minutes of the third quarter and the start of the fourth.

The Redhawks began the final quarter with a loss of 3 yards on third-and-goal from the 7, but an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on EIU gave them an automatic first down and moved them to the 5.

The next two passes fell incomplete to McRoberts and Peter Lloyd in the end zone before McCullough ran it to the 1. Vandeven scored on 1-yard run to cut the deficit to 27-21 with 13:39 to go in the game.

EIU pushed its lead to 33-21 with a 6-yard catch by running back Devin Church 4:38 later.

Vandeven was sacked for a loss of 10 yards on the second play of the ensuing drive before he completed passes of 11 yards to McRoberts and 24 yards to McCullough, and Darrius Darden-Box rushed for 25 yards on a reverse to move Southeast to the EIU 10.

Southeast Missouri State quarterback Dante Vandeven throws a pass against Eastern Illinois during the second quarter Saturday, Oct. 10, 2015 in Charleston, Illinois. (Fred Lynch)

After a 2-yard Washington run, McRoberts outjumped his defenders and snagged an 8-yard touchdown pass to cut it to 33-28 with 5:30 to go.

"I just had my mindset of, 'I just dropped the last one,' and I wanted to get this one for my team," said McRoberts, who had nine catches for 132 yards. "Just had the mindset to get open and win one-on-one. They had double coverage and even the safety came over, but just go up and get the ball, don't worry about the defenders."

Southeast's defense stopped EIU's Shepard Little for a loss of 2 yards, and quarterback Jalen Whitlow picked up a yard before the Redhawks called a timeout with 4:11 remaining and the Panthers facing third-and-11.

Whitlow, a Kentucky transfer, hit Gossage for an 11-yard gain and a first down to keep the drive going. The Panthers ultimately punted but left the Redhawks with just 34 seconds to score.

"We were in man coverage, didn't get as much pressure as we would've liked, but he was definitely the difference in the game," Matukewicz said of the third-down pass. "They're 8 of 16 on third down because of [Whitlow]. He ran the ball really, really well, and some third down throws he had he made. There's a reason he signed at Kentucky."

Southeast Missouri State coach Tom Matukewicz talks to Omar Pierre-Louis at Eastern Illinois during the second quarter Saturday, Oct. 10, 2015 in Charleston, Illinois. (Fred Lynch)

EIU's punt was downed at the Southeast 5. Vandeven completed passes of 7, 36 and 9 yards to McRoberts to move to the Panthers' 43 before he threw two incomplete passes to Lloyd to set up one final shot.

"At that point, it was loose," Vandeven said of the final possession. "I felt like we knew we could come back into that game, and it almost loosened us up more. It wasn't as tense of a game, but then again, we knew what we had to go back out there and do."

Vandeven's heave to the end zone was batted away by Bradley Dewberry with no time remaining for the final score.

The Redhawks' offense, which was shut out at halftime, amassed only 76 yards of offense in the first half and had three first downs. EIU had 209 yards at the break and 11 first downs but was held to a 3-yard touchdown run by Church and field goals of 20 and 39 yards by Nick Bruno.

Southeast got on the board in the first half on a 28-yard interception return by sophomore linebacker Josh Kinder with 1:16 left in the half to make it 13-7 at the break.

"They were down there and just kept battling, got them to some third downs, got them off the field and made them kick field goals, which kept us in the game," Matukewicz said of the first-half defense. "Then we turn around and pick-6 them at half. That was about as bad as a half of offensive football maybe since I've been here."

The Redhawks moved into Panthers territory once in the first half -- on a 25-yard pass to Darden-Box with less than five minutes remaining before halftime. That drive stalled out at the 38 and resulted in the Redhawks' fifth punt of the half, but Kinzer's interception came on the first play of the next drive. Southeast had 25 yards on 11 carries in the first half.

"The message is if we don't start running the ball a little bit we're going to get blown out of this game, and defensively you've just got to keep playing," Matukewicz said. "We got in a lot of third and longs and they're the No. 1 team on defense when it's third and long, and it was all because we couldn't get the run game going."

EIU scored on an 11-yard pass to Bounds with 10:52 left in the third before his 65-yard touchdown reception gave the Panthers their largest lead and jumpstarted the Redhawks' rally.

Southeast finished with 334 yards of offense and was 3 of 4 in the red zone. Ryan McCrum missed a 33-yard field goal with 7:40 left in the third when it was 20-7 EIU.

The Panthers finished with 455 yards of offense and were 4 for 4 in the red zone. They improved to 2-3 and 2-0 in the OVC.

Southeast hosts Eastern Kentucky, which is ranked 17 and 20 in the STATS FCS and FCS Coaches poll, respectively, for its homecoming game next weekend. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.

"It shows that we've got to be more prepared next week when we face a top [25] team," Vandeven said. "First half we came out slow. It just shows that we need to become quick starters, get in a rhythm early or else we're just not going to be able to come out on top at the end."