Southeast Missouri State football team looks to end losing streak vs. Austin Peay

The Southeast Missouri State and Austin Peay football teams are both coming off difficult losses heading into a meeting at Houck Stadium on Saturday.

The Redhawks suffered their fourth straight loss after falling 27-26 to Tennessee Tech on Saturday, while Austin Peay gave up the game-winning touchdown in the final minute to lose 31-27 to Tennessee State.

"This one will be tough [to rebound from] because [Austin Peay] led the whole time," Southeast coach Tom Matukewicz said. "I mean, the last 30 seconds is when they lost the game. When you've come that close that's hard, but the head coach is a real even-keel guy and I'm sure he'll have them ready again. Just like us, we lost a tough game, and can you bounce your guys back?"

The two teams will have the opportunity to bounce back from their losses against each other. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. Saturday at Houck Stadium.

"I think anytime you lead for 59 minutes and 25 seconds of the game, then you have a lot of work to do to get them back and get them ready to go again," APSU coach Kirby Cannon said in the OVC's weekly teleconference. "There were a lot of positives on both sides of the ball, but when it came down to it we didn't perform, we didn't get the play that closes those games out."

The Govs have won one game over the past two seasons. They snapped an 18-game losing streak with a 20-13 defeat of Murray State on Oct. 18. They've lost three straight since and had been outscored 93-7 by UT Martin and nationally-ranked Jacksonville State before their loss to TSU.

APSU's 27 points were the most they'd scored this season.

"It gives you a positive feel, but it also just tells us how well-coached and well-disciplined we have to be to compete with a good football team," Cannon said. "We'll be challenged again in that regard this coming weekend with Southeast. I think they do a great job, particularly on the offensive side of mixing up what they do and how they challenge you, so we'll have to be better than we were last week to compete with them."

Southeast won 36-34 in Clarksville, Tennessee, last season, and Matukewicz said the Govs have clearly improved throughout this season.

"They really outplayed Tennessee State when you look at the film," Matukewicz said. "I think they finally settled in on their quarterback -- they've played four of them. The kid from Central Arkansas [Trey Taylor] came in and gave them some stability. He ran the offense really well. They scored a ton more than they have against a pretty good defense. They'll run the ball -- they don't throw it great, necessarily. But it's a pretty solid football team."

Taylor, a redshirt junior transfer, replaced starting quarterback Darrien Boone in the second quarter against TSU. He finished with 49 yards rushing and a touchdown on 14 carries, while also completing 8 of 17 passes for 104 yards and a score.

Boone, a freshman, has completed 56 percent of his passes in nine games, compiling 387 yards and two touchdowns. He's rushed for 114 yards on 56 carries.

Mickey Macius has played in seven games and thrown for 530 yards and five touchdowns.

Freshman running back Otis Gerron leads the team with 469 yards rushing, averaging 5.7 yards per carry, with two touchdowns. Sophomore running back Justin Roberson has 397 yards rushing on 124 carries with a score.

Freshman receiver Jared Beard leads the team with four receiving touchdowns. He has 175 yards receiving on 18 catches. Senior receiver Javier Booker has 230 yards receiving and a touchdown on 15 catches.

"They play hard and are well-coached, and I'm not sure SEMO's ever blown them out," Matukewicz said. "It's been tough games. We'll talk about what we need to talk about with Austin Peay, but really just for us it's about obviously ball security and short-yardage run game and red zone."