Southeast drops the ball against UT Martin

The Southeast Missouri State football team failed to get things going offensively on Saturday night when the faced Ohio valley Conferences foe and nationally ranked number 23 Tennessee - Martin.

The Redhawks struggled to score early and often and eventually fell to 0-4 this season with a final score of 17-7. It is the first time the Redhawks have gone 0-4 under coach Tony Samuel.

After last weeks game at Busch stadium in St. Louis, the usually run-oriented offense of the Redhawks looked as though it was beginning to rely on the passing game for offense, throwing for 249 yards against Southern Illinois.

That wasn't the case on Saturday night as the Redhawks tried to go back to the run, rushing 40 times for 164 yards and throwing the ball just 29 times for 142 yards.

UT Martin put points on the board early in the first quarter when quarterback Dylan Favre, the nephew of former NFL quarterback Brett Favre, connected with wide receiver Corey Jordan on a 35-yard touchdown pass.

UT Martin scored later in the second quarter when running back Najee Ray ran the ball up the middle for nine yards and a touchdown. The Skyhawks did most of their damage on the ground, gaining 238 rushing yards, with running back D.J. McNeil carrying most of the load rushing for a career-high 148 yards on 27 carries.

"The game wasn't out of reach at that point," Samuel said. "It just hurt that we let up two early touchdowns and couldn't stop the run for most of the game."

Jackson Redditt added a 22-yard field goal with 2 minutes, 48 seconds left in the first half, putting the Skyhawks up by a score of 17-7.

The Redhawks finally put together a promising drive midway through the third quarter. It started at their own 11-yard line and ended at the Skyhawks 20-yard, where the drive stalled and ended on downs.

Another opportunity arose when freshman defensive lineman John Popovich recovered a fumble at the Skyhawks 31 late in the third quarter. Holding penalties committed by the lineman on this drive and throughout the night made things a lot tougher on the offense. Three consecutive drives saw holding penalties which forced the Redhawks into third and long situations. Southeast failed to convert on either of these drives.

"We adjusted really well to what they run in the second half," Popovich said. "But we need to be playing that way the whole game, and that's something we'll have to talk about as a team."

The failed drive attempt set up a 48-yard field-goal attempt for freshman Alex Knight. The kick was well short of the uprights and the Skyhawks regained possession.

Southeast's defense continued to hold and limit the Skyhawks to gainning yards. The Redhawks held the 23rd nationally ranked Skyhawks to 86 yards and zero points in the second half.

The Skyhawks had numerous chances to score but the Redhawks defensive front applied heavy pressure to Favre, forcing them to punt five times in the second half.

Late in the fourth quarter, Southeast put together its best drive of the night. Quarterback Scott Lathrop, who swapped snaps with quarterback Kyle Snyder all night but played all of the fourth quarter, connected with wide receiver D.J. Foster twice on the drive.

The next play of the drive was a "quarterback keeper" up the middle by Lathrop for a 23-yard gain, putting the ball just outside the five to the 6-yard line. Lathrop finished the game with six rushes for 64 yards.

Two plays later fullback Ron Coleman, the Redhawks leading rusher, punched the ball up the middle two yards and across the plane of the end zone for a touchdown with 6:17 left in the game.

It was too little too late as the Redhawks failed to get in the end zone again. Lathrop and Snyder both finished the game with 71 yards passing, while Paul McRoberts led the Redhawks in receiving with 40 yards.

"Our defense keeps getting better," Lathrop said. "Now its on us to score more points."

Southeast gets back to work on Saturday at 6 p.m. when it face its first OVC road test of the year, Tennessee State University in Nashville.