Football team loses first game at home this season

The Southeast Missouri State Redhawks football team fell to 4-4 on the season after a loss to the Eastern Illinois Panthers by a score of 52-13 on Saturday, Oct. 18 at Houck Stadium. Prior to the game, the Redhawks were unbeaten at home this season.

Eastern Illinois came to Southeast as the two-time defending Ohio Valley Conference champions, although with only a 1-5 record to its credit before its win over Southeast.

The Panthers have had perhaps the toughest schedule of any OVC team this season, leading to a record that is misleading given the team's talent.

The Panthers boast the OVC's best offense, and that offense broke through in a big way on Saturday.

EIU opened the scoring in the first quarter with a 50-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Jalen Whitlow to All-American senior wide receiver Adam Drake.

Two Ryan McCrum field goals, one from 51 yards making him one of two kickers in all of college football to have made four field goals from 50 yards or more, kept Southeast in the game through the first quarter.

However, the Panther offense would break the game open in the second quarter and eventually blowout the Redhawks.

Southeast quarterback, Kyle Snyder, followed a three-yard touchdown run by Whitlow in the second quarter with a six-yard pass to Spencer Davis, bringing the score to 14-13 mid-way through the period.

That was the last time the Redhawks were able to put points on the board, and EIU went on to score 38 unanswered points.

Five of EIU's seven touchdowns were scored on the ground Saturday, the final one coming on a whopping 96-yard run by Panther's senior running back Jimmy Lera.

Overall, EIU rushed for 335 yards, while the Redhawks were only able to muster up 96 total rushing yards on the day.

"We couldn't run the ball or stop the run, so all of our situations were long yardage, and that's why we had to kick field goals instead of get touchdowns," Coach Tom Matukewicz said. "We weren't good on third down, and they just big-played us a little bit on defense, and just athletically they kind of got after us."

The ability to convert on third downs played a large role for each team in Saturday's game, the advantage going to EIU who converted seven third downs out of eleven chances. Southeast only converted on third down three times.

Turnovers also played a large part in Saturday's game. Southeast entered the game having not allowed a turnover since Sept. 27. Four interceptions and a lost fumble would change that for the Redhawks.

Snyder ended his day by going 19-32 with three interceptions and one touchdown before a big hit would keep him from reentering the game.

Snyder was replaced by backup quarterback, Alex Niznak, who was responsible for the final interception thrown on the day.

"I pulled him [Snyder], the game was in hand," Matukewicz said. "I wanted to see Alex in the game and so that's what happened there."

Although Snyder's final play resulted in a big blow to the chest, there was no injury to the Redhawk quarterback and the decision was solely based on the fact that Matukewicz wanted to see his backup quarterback get some meaningful snaps.

It was a scary moment for Redhawk fans, however. Snyder remained on the ground for a few minutes before rallying himself back up and over to the sidelines.

The hit on Snyder was one of many big blows by the Panther's defense.

Senior running back Lenneis McFerren was removed from the game early on due to a big hit.

Injuries have decimated the Redhawks this season on both sides of the ball, but Matukewicz remains hopeful of his players going forward.

"Number one, a game like this teaches you a lesson about who's really in your corner, and about family, and to not turn on each other because each other is all we have," Matukewicz said. "Just go about the process just like we've done since I've been here, and try to figure out how to be a little bit better football team next week."

Southeast now has lost two games in a row, this game followed by a double overtime loss at Murray State on Oct. 11. The Redhawks will travel to Eastern Kentucky (6-1) next week where Matukewicz hopes to turn the losing streak around.

"Well, it's going to be about my team and not their team," Matukewicz said. "That was a mistake I feel like we made this week, you know we made it all about Eastern Illinois and talking about Eastern Illinois and we should have just worried about coaching our football team."

While Matukewicz will remain focused on his team this week rather than Southeast's opponent, the Redhawks will certainly have their hands full playing a No. 19 ranked football program in Eastern Kentucky at Roy Kidd Stadium.

Eastern Kentucky is the only OVC team in the Eastern Time Zone, with a start time of 3 p.m. Eastern and 2 p.m. Central Time on Saturday.