'Special' tackle a big play for Tribe

Somewhat lost in the shuffle among all the big late plays by Southeast Missouri State University's football team during Saturday's stirring 38-33 win at Illinois State was a saving special teams tackle by little-used Alex Alameda.

A senior walk-on defensive back who has seen extremely limited action during his Southeast career, Alameda was not even on the Indians' travel roster for this year's season opener at Eastern Michigan.

But Saturday, without Alameda's play, the Indians' likely would not have had a chance to come back from a 14-point deficit in the fourth quarter.

Southeast's Derek Kutz had just booted a 43-yard field goal with 7:40 remaining to trim Illinois State's lead to 33-26. But on the ensuing kickoff, Quincy Washington broke loose down the left sideline and appeared to have clear sailing toward a touchdown that might have all but put the Indians away.

But seemingly out of nowhere, Alameda managed to barely trip up Washington, who had to settle for a 54-yard return to the Southeast 36-yard line.

The Indians' defense was able to stiffen, keeping the score 33-26 and setting up the dramatic finish that featured an 80-yard trick pass play for a touchdown from wide receiver Adrian Sanders to fellow wide out Willie Ponder with 5:47 left and Curtis Cooper's game-winning 70-yard punt return for a TD with 3:30 remaining.

Alameda, listed as 5-feet-8 and 180 pounds, is used primarily only on special teams and according to unofficial press box statistics he was credited with only that one tackle on the day.

But what a big tackle it was.

"No question, that was huge," said Southeast coach Tim Billings, whose squad is 2-2. "That was a great play by Alameda and we needed it."

McCluney plays big

While there were plenty of other heroes to go around in the comeback victory, Billings said a big key was the play of redshirt freshman wide receiver Mark McCluney, who entered the contest with no career receptions.

But McCluney caught three passes for 21 yards Saturday and he also hauled in a two-point conversion toss.

"We needed a fourth receiver to come through to go along with Willie, Adrian and Tarik (Simpson)," said Billings. "Mark made some big plays. He's got a lot of ability."

Ponder, continuing his monster season, led Southeast's receivers with seven catches for 175 yards while Sanders added six receptions for 83 yards.

Cooper, also having a huge year, compiled 248 all-purpose yards and was named the Ohio Valley Conference Offensive Player of the Week Sunday.

According to unofficial press box statistics, linebacker Ricky Farmer was credited with 14 tackles to lead the Southeast defense. Safety Leotis Belcher had 10 stops while end Cal Jillson added nine, including three for losses and a sack. Linebacker Todd Frazier was credited with two tackles for losses.

Kutz comes through

Even though Kutz missed the first two extra points of his college career -- one was blocked and according to NCAA statistics will officially be listed as a miss for the team but not for Kutz -- the Indians' true freshman kicker continued to shine.

The clutch 43-yard field goal was a college career long for Kutz and makes him 4-for-5 on the season. Kutz is also 8-for-9 in the point-after department.

Southeast punter Kyle East also had another strong game as he averaged 47 yards on three attempts. East entered the contest with a 41.7-yard average.

On the down side, for the second straight game Saturday the Indians had a key defensive player ejected in the first half.

True freshman cornerback Dimitri Patterson, who has made a major impact in his rookie season, was tossed after getting into an altercation with an Illinois State player and the officials felt like he delivered some kind of blow to the head area.

Last week, tackle Jermaine Motley was ejected for kicking a Southwest Missouri player.

"The official said Dimitri slapped at the guy's head," Billings said. "On film, it looked like he hit him on the shoulder, but two guys getting kicked out in two games is really disappointing and we've already talked about that. We have to be more disciplined than that."

McDowell update

Nothing was determined Sunday regarding the injured left knee of starting quarterback Jeromy McDowell, who went down late in the first quarter against Illinois State and missed the rest of the contest.

Billings said McDowell, a redshirt freshman who has already passed for more than 1,000 yards during his rookie season, will have an MRI today and that test will hopefully determine the extent of the injury.

McDowell's status for this Saturday's Ohio Valley Conference opener at Tennessee State is up in the air. The Tigers (2-0) opened some eyes Saturday by stunning ninth-ranked Florida A&M 27-7.