Southeast Missouri State football team falls to Eastern Kentucky on Homecoming

The Southeast Missouri State football team headed into its locker room at halftime with its offense running through its top receiver and deadlocked with No. 14/15 Eastern Kentucky.

The Redhawks emerged from the break to find themselves facing a refined Colonels squad that wreaked havoc on the offense and shut them out the remainder of their homecoming game en route to a 27-10 victory at Houck Stadium.

"The second half they came out and did a lot of different coverages," Southeast quarterback Dante Vandeven said. "Coverage-wise they changed it up a little bit because they noticed that I threw the ball to Paul [McRoberts] a lot. When he's out there, he's definitely a big target to hit and one that'll bring the ball down, so they changed up the coverage a little bit, made it a little bit harder for me to make my reads, and then it just went from there."

Southeast's offense was held to just 52 yards in the second half and never made it into the red zone after halftime.

Southeast Missouri State's Paul McRoberts hauls in a 3-yard pass from Dante Vandeven to score a touchdown against Eastern Kentucky during the first quarter Saturday, Oct. 17, 2015 at Houck Stadium. (Fred Lynch)

The Redhawks, who punted seven times in the game, had second-half drives that moved no further than the EKU 37.

That drive began on Southeast's 48 with 6:32 left in the third, and after moving to the 37, a loss of seven yards and a sack for a loss of nine forced the Redhawks to punt.

"They were kind of playing off and so we had a lot of run-pass options, so instead of running we'd throw it out there quick, get four yards," Southeast coach Tom Matukewicz said. "In the second half, they went ahead and pressed all that up. We tried to throw deep a couple times and ended up getting sacked -- didn't have to throw it and so our protection failed."

Vandeven completed 10 passes to senior receiver Paul McRoberts for 93 yards and a touchdown in the first half but was unable to complete another pass to his top receiver for the remainder of the game.

"We dropped back to throw it plenty to him, but they won that battle, for sure," Matukewicz said, referring to pressure on Vandeven.

McRoberts gave the Redhawks a 7-0 lead with a 3-yard touchdown catch in the back right corner of the end zone with 5 minutes, 34 seconds left in the first quarter. It was the 26th receiving touchdown of his career, which tied Willie Ponder's school record.

The Colonels tied it with a 6-yard run by Adam Lane with 13:06 left in the first half.

Southeast Missouri State coach Tom Matukewicz reacts on the sideline during the game with Eastern Kentucky Saturday, Oct. 17, 2015 at Houck Stadium. (Fred Lynch)

On the eighth play of the Redhawks' next drive, McRoberts caught a 24-yard pass to set up first-and-goal from the 3-yard line. Two runs for a loss, a 1-yard run by running back Tremane McCullough and an incomplete pass led to a 20-yard field goal by Ryan McCrum that put Southeast up 10-7 with 8:53 left in the half.

EKU's next drive resulted in a 27-yard field goal by Lucas Williams 2:55 later to retie, it and it stayed knotted at 10-10 at the break.

McRoberts' 10 first-half catches were a career high. He was targeted 11 times in the first half and just twice in the second.

"Like Dante said, moving the ball early on, they noticed that I was getting it and started to cloud me a little bit," McRoberts said. "I felt like the coaches shied away, you know, got a little afraid to keep going even though they was clouding me. And that's tough as a coach to try and force something that might not be there, but at the same time, when me and Dante and the offense is confident we've just got to keep rolling.

"Once we roll, we've got to keep going. We can't let up."

Southeast's first drive of the second half went three-and-out and resulted in a loss of a yard.

Eastern Kentucky quarterback Bennie Coney breaks away from Southeast Missouri State defenders during the third quarter Saturday, Oct. 17, 2015 at Houck Stadium. (Fred Lynch)

Colonels quarterback Bennie Coney completed a 38-yard pass to tight end Ben Madon to start the drive and hit Bryan Green for a 29-yard touchdown two plays later to take their first lead of the game at 17-10 just 3:38 into the second half.

"They started to pick up the tempo a little bit," junior safety Eriq Moore said. "I could see they were starting to get to it end of the first half, and then the second half, they started to pick it up a little bit. I thought it was still the same, the stuff that we prepared for, the stuff that we should've been able to stop. They executed."

Late in the third, EKU faced fourth-and-9 from the Redhawks 38 after Lawrence Hills made a stop for a loss of four.

The Colonels' punt team came onto the field, but punter Keith Wrzuszczk connected with tight end Barton Mann for a 16-yard gain to the 22.

"As a defensive player, as a defense, we're thinking we've got them, they're going to punt the ball, maybe pooch punt it, maybe down it inside the 20 -- that's the worst we're thinking that could happen," Moore said. "Coach [Matt] Martin does a great job with special teams. We were in the perfect call. We were ready for fakes. It was just a missed assignment. Guy sneaks out, they connect and get the first down."

Matukewicz had an inclination that EKU was going for the fake punt.

"We put punt block out there but it was punt block safe and we had a guy make a critical error," Matukewicz said. "I'll see it on film, but I think it was a deal where if it was there, he'd throw it and if not, he would've gone ahead and punted it. We didn't have the rush to contain the punter."

The drive continued into the fourth quarter and ended with a 7-yard touchdown reception by Joel Brown to make it 24-0.

EKU missed a 41-yard field goal attempt on its next drive.

Southeast moved to the Colonels' 48 on its next drive. An incomplete pass intended for McRoberts, a loss of five yards on a fumble that the Redhawks recovered and a 1-yard loss on a pass to Peter Lloyd set up fourth-and-16 from the Redhawks' own 46. Vandeven was sacked for a loss of six with 4:56 remaining. EKU, which took over on the Southeast 40, capped its scoring on the next drive with a 32-yard field goal with 2:02 remaining.

"O-Line did a fine job. Pressure came because I didn't get the ball out, pretty much," Vandeven said. "There was open guys, I just didn't see them."

The Redhawks finished with 191 yards of offense to EKU's 404.

Southeast was held to a season-low in rushing for the second straight week. After being held to 117 yards rushing against Eastern Illinois, the Redhawks were limited to 31 yards on 31 attempts by the Colonels, which Matukewicz attributed to playing "good teams."

"If we played Eastern Kentucky next week, guess what? We'd struggle," Matukewicz said. "We played two of the top 3 programs [in the OVC], and they're very good in the front seven. Kentucky couldn't run it very well, either."

EKU improved to 4-2 and 3-0 in the conference with the win.

The Redhawks (2-5, 1-2 OVC) have a bye week this week. They host Tennessee Tech for their Pink Up Game on Oct. 31.

"As a football team we played actually better than Eastern Illinois as far as mental mistakes and we got out-physicaled at some spots and out-athleted today, but we've got four games left and just going to keep doing what we've been doing since we got here -- keep working," Matukewicz said.