THE LATEST LINE: SE FOOTBALL REWARDED FOR PERSISTENCE

By any standards, it has been an extremely disappointing season for Southeast Missouri State University's football team.

The Indians dropped their first seven games to tie the school's all-time longest losing streak of 12 and most people expected that mark to fall Saturday when Southwest Missouri came to Houck Stadium.

But, as SEMO coach John Mumford has pointed out all season -- not to make excuses but simply to praise his team's character -- the Indians have never shown even the slightest signs of throwing in the towel.

And that persistence was rewarded Saturday when the Indians defeated the Bears 28-23 in a thriller.

I would never criticize anybody on the team individually because I personally know that SEMO's squad is full of first-rate people, but I have in the past been critical of the team in general for simply not being very good.

So now it's time for me to give the Indians their deserved props. With the chance of any kind of a decent year already over, it would have been so easy for SEMO to give up on the season.

But anybody who saw Saturday's game knows that is certainly not the case. The Indians continue to fight, scratch and claw until the bitter end. And that effort -- along with a scintillating performance off the bench by quarterback Rashad West -- finally paid off.

I don't know what the final three games of the season will hold for the Indians but congratulations to everybody associated with the program for finally getting the monkey off their backs.

It was great to see the Indians celebrating on the Houck Stadium field Saturday. They certainly deserved to party.

* District play for high school football teams opened Friday night and most area games went according to form, but there was one major shocker when Sikeston stunned North County 36-35 in 4A, District 1.

The Bulldogs looked like they were really in for a struggling season early but have certainly turned things around.

Another team turning some heads is Fredericktown, which is having its best season in years. The Black Cats picked up a surprisingly easy 28-0 win at Dexter in 3A, District 1.

I've always though that Fredericktown coach Kent Gibbs gets about as much out of what he has to work with as any coach in the area and that is being proven out this year.

Looking ahead to the second week of district play, many eyes will be on Jackson this Friday when the Indians host Poplar Bluff in what figures to be the large-school game of the year in Southeast Missouri and will likely decide the 5A, District 1 title.

* For those of you who read Bob Miller's fine story on Cape Central kicker Brian Emmendorfer, yes, the Danny Huesgen who holds the state high school record for the longest field goal -- 62 yards -- and the Danny Huesgen who is a standout baseball pitcher for SEMO are one and the same.

Huesgen booted his state-record field goal in 1995 while playing for Pattonville in suburban St. Louis. Pattonville is traditionally one of the St. Louis area's premier high school football programs.

~Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian