Hundredth win in FCS history for Southeast Missouri State

On Oct.1, Southeast Missouri State’s football team got its 100th win since it joined the Football Championship Subdivision in 1991. This was the 24th meeting of Southeast Missouri State and Eastern Illinois. EIU has a current winning record of 17-7 against Southeast since 1956. Southeast came out victorious this time, adding another win to the column.

EIU was ranked 13th in the FCS before meeting with Southeast on Saturday. Southeast before Saturday's game only had four wins against ranked FCS opponents. Being the second game Southeast has won, this current win streak is showing that the team is improving from the 0-3 team at the beginning of the year.

The play action pass was the key during two major drives in the game. It opened up a gap for junior wide receiver Adrian Davis, who continued to run for 62 yards for a touchdown. Another call for the play action pass gave an opening for sophomore tight end Marquette Murdock, who caught a pass and ran right by the defensive coverage for another Southeast touchdown.

The Redhawks’ defense held EIU’s offense to just 7 points.

“That was a good offense, the defense just held them to 7 points and that’s spectacular,” head coach Tom Matukewicz said.

The team came into Saturday’s game with a need for victory after a heartbreaking loss to Indiana State on Sept. 17.

“Looking back at Indiana State, we knew we had to come out and win this one,” senior linebacker Roper Garrett said.

EIU scored the third touchdown of the night when junior running back Christopher Anderson ran for 18 yards. It was EIU’s only offensive touchdown of the game.

The other touchdown from EIU came from the defense recovering a fumble off Southeast’s backward pass.

Junior quarterback Jesse Hosket completed 60 percent of his passes, going 12 for 20. Hosket ran in the first touchdown of the game on a quarterback draw.

EIU tried to catch up to the Redhawks’ early lead, but just couldn’t get past the team's defense. Three and outs were common for both teams on Saturday, along with penalties. On the opening kickoff, EIU collected its first 10-yard penalty of the night.

The game seemed to be plagued with injuries, but the grit of Southeast didn’t decrease.

“You see a lot of guys filling in on plays and making spots just showing how deep and good this team is,” Garrett said.

The team learned from the tapes of past games and is trying to improve from it.

“We’ve been playing some good defense in previous games, keeping teams from scoring a lot, but the big plays are when teams start giving up points and we let them get too many,” senior safety Eriq Moore said. “We made sure this week we wouldn’t give up too many plays.”

The Southeast football team will compete again at 5 p.m. on Saturday at Eastern Kentucky.