Southeast football team falls to SIU 50-23

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Turnovers, penalties, missed assignments -- some of the things that members of the Southeast Missouri State football team called "little" can turn into something big when they happen as frequently as they did in the Redhawks' game against No. 14/20 Southern Illinois on Saturday.

The multiple turnovers, penalties and missed assignments committed by the Redhawks at Saluki Stadium resulted in a 50-23 loss to their regional-rival, which improved to 3-0.

"We're close," senior running back Lennies McFerren said. "We've just got a lot of errors, penalties -- all the little stuff just hurt us. We need to cut all that out. When we come together, you see what happens. We believe, and we're unstoppable when we come together. Once we cut out all that little stuff, we're going to be unstoppable."

"Offensively we moved the ball well," senior quarterback Kyle Snyder said. "We've just got to cut out the little things and we'll be fine."

The Redhawks had 12 penalties for 88 yards. They fumbled four times, and all four were recovered by the Salukis.

"Things happen, but they can't repeatedly happen," junior receiver Paul McRoberts said. "I wouldn't say they totally blew us out of the water. We beat ourselves -- again. That's one thing we've got to fix first. We can't beat a team if we're beating ourselves."

Snyder fumbled on the Redhawks' first drive of the game. The Salukis recovered it on the Southeast 21-yard line, and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty moved the Salukis up to the 10-yard line.Three plays later SIU quarterback Mark Iannotti threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to make it 7-0 just 3 minutes, 24 seconds into the game.

Snyder ran 12 yards up the middle on the next drive before fumbling. SIU recovered at the Southeast 48 with 11:19 remaining in the first quarter, but wouldn't score as a result of the play. Sophomore safety Eriq Moore forced and recovered a fumble on the Salukis' ensuing drive.

Southeast Missouri State running back Lewis Washington carries past Southern Illinois' Jordan Poole with Chase Allen ready to tackle him during the first quarter Saturday, Sept. 13, 2014 in Carbondale, Ill. (Fred Lynch)

"It's hard to say without watching the film, but it's easy to say, 'Well Kyle Snyder just turned it over,'" Southeast Missouri State coach Tom Matukewicz said. "We all saw some really good effort by them and (they were) able to get a couple balls out. Kyle's still new playing, and we're going to have to tackle him a little bit in practice because -- even though we've got to try to keep him healthy -- we've got to get him to feel what it takes to run the football so that we can take care of it. That's probably a little bit on me. They did a good job, but at the end of the day a lot of the procedure penalties and stuff are still on us. A couple of the special teams stuff we'll watch on film. It's hard to be critical of those until you actually see it on the film."

SIU scored on a 33-yard reception by senior running back Malcolm Agnew, who caught a screen pass and ran it in with 7:25 left in the first.

Snyder was picked off by junior safety D.J. Cameron at the Southeast 20 and returned it to the 2-yard line with 6:14 to go in the quarter. Agnew ran it in three plays later to put the Salukis' up three scores.

The Redhawks' last drive of the quarter featured four penalties. They got to the SIU 26 and sophomore kicker Ryan McCrum made a career-long 43-yard field goal to get Southeast on the board with 1:12 left in the quarter and make it 21-3.

"I think we might need some red pepper or something to get us going a little sooner," senior cornerback Tim Hamm-Bey said of Southeast's rough start. "But that's definitely not the team that we are. We don't wait, relax to see how the game is going. We tend to get overexcited and once we calm down and start to play Redhawk football, that's when you really see a football game in front of you."

Things started to look up for Southeast after the first 15 minutes of the game. McCrum cut it to 21-6 with 10:50 remaining in the half with a 38-yard field goal.

Then Hamm-Bey intercepted an Iannotti pass and returned it 56 yards for Southeast's first touchdown less than two minutes later.

"We put our defense in some really bad positions, and it really takes a play like that to try to get you back in it," Matukewicz said. "If we would have eliminated our mistakes from that point on I think we're back in the football game, but then they reached out and bit us some more. That was a great play and to be able to finish in the end zone like that -- that's something we've got to be able to build on."

It didn't take long for the Salukis to answer, with help from a Southeast penalty. The Redhawks' were called for pass interference on third-and-4, and the penalty resulted in a first down. Three plays later Iannotti connected with senior wide receiver Tay Willis for a 60-yard touchdown pass over the top of the Southeast defense.

"With any kind of big change in football, especially college football, you should expect a shot," Hamm-Bey said of Willis' touchdown. "We kind of got out-leveraged by the route and they went up top on us. Sometimes you can expect things like that, but you really can't overplay it because you don't know for sure, so you've just got to play the technique and give it your all."

Southeast senior receiver and returner Spencer Davis returned the next kickoff to the Southeast 12, but an illegal block moved it back to the 6. Two plays later Davis fumbled and the Salukis recovered it on the 1-yard line.

An SIU penalty put them back to the 11, but senior tight end MyCole Pruitt caught a pass in the end zone with 5:37 left in the half to make it 35-13.

Southeast marched down the field without a penalty on the next drive, and it resulted in a 19-yard touchdown reception by McRoberts with 42 seconds before the break.

McCrum made his third field goal of the night -- a career-high -- with 10:36 left in the third. Southeast had moved the ball to the SIU 18, but Snyder was sacked for a loss of six yards and a McFerren loss of two yards made it fourth-and-18.

McCrum's 43-yard field goal, which made it 35-23, was the last score for Southeast. There was no fourth-quarter comeback like the three touchdowns the Redhawks scored in the final 15 minutes against Kansas.

SIU scored once more in the third and six seconds into the fourth to make it 50-23.

Southeast had the ball fourth-and-goal, but were stopped short with about five minutes remaining in the game.

"The big difference is we looked at the scoreboard more this game than Kansas," McRoberts said. "At Kansas we didn't worry about the scoreboard. This game we were like, 'Oh, they scored. They scored. Oh, a two-point conversion.'"

McRoberts led Southeast with 86 yards receiving and a touchdown on seven receptions. McFerren had 16 carries for a team-high 80 yards rushing. Leading rusher DeMichael Jackson is sidelined with a broken left hand.

Snyder completed 16 of 29 passes for 204 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 51 yards on 20 carries. He finished the night with an interception and three fumbles and was sacked twice.

"I just think those are things that I'm going to have to correct this week going into next week," Snyder said. "I know I will. I know my team's got my back, so we've just got to look forward to next week."

Southeast hosts No. 3 Southeastern Louisiana on Saturday. The Redhawks fell to 1-2 with the loss to the Salukis.

"I think the key to winning a football game is it all comes down to about three or four plays that we wish we could've got back," Hamm-Bey said. "If we could've got those back then I think the scoreboard would be a little closer and we'd come out on top. As far as them just coming out and beating us pound for pound, nobody can do that. It was just a couple plays."