Notebook: Eastern Kentucky tight end has career day against Southeast Missouri State football team

For the second straight week, an opposing tight end had a career day against the Southeast Missouri State football team.

A week after Eastern Illinois tight end Addison Bounds compiled a career-high 107 yards on five catches against the Redhawks, Eastern Kentucky tight end Ben Madon caught six passes for 117 yards.

"Most of his catches were off a scramble," Southeast coach Tom Matukewicz said of Madon. "It was a delayed sprint out and 10's a good player and got open but it wasn't like [a trend]. It was just one of those things that happened back to back that the tight end had good games. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure they're not related."

Madon, a 6-foot-5, 252-pound redshirt senior, entered the game with 101 receiving yards and a touchdown on eight catches.

"They're an 11-personnel team, and our defense is made for 11-personnel teams so we didn't really focus much on them and what they can do," junior Eriq Moore said. But we watched film and could see that he was about 6-4, No. 88 was about 6-6, so we knew that they had a little height over there at the receiver position, but as far as keying on a certain guy on the receiving corps, we didn't really do that. We just respected everyone."

Madon had catches of 12, 17, 20, 24 and 38 yards against the Redhawks on Saturday as the Colonels finished with 291 yards receiving.

"It was really just they found some holes in our zone. Every zone has a hole," Moore said. "They found those holes. They were able to execute. Kudos to No. 10. No. 10 had a great game. He caught passes that he should've caught, and he made a couple of good catches, but I just felt like he was hitting the holes. We've definitely got to get better at zone defense."

Spence keeps sacking

EKU defensive lineman Noah Spence continued his streak of at least one sack in each game so far this season.

Southeast Missouri State quarterback Dante Vandeven lines up a pass against Eastern Kentucky during the second quarter Saturday, Oct. 17, 2015 at Houck Stadium. (Fred Lynch)

The 6-foot-3, 261-pound redshirt junior had 1 1/2 of EKU's 3 sacks of Redhawks quarterback Dante Vandeven.

Southeast had allowed eight sacks this season, with three against Southern Illinois being the most allowed.

Spence entered the game ranked No. 1 in the Ohio Valley Conference and fifth nationally with 5.5 sacks.

"Well, we don't have any Noah Spence's on our team and so as far as preparing, you can't put anybody there, but we tried to get the ball out quickly and were successful in the first half," Matukewicz said. "But in the second half they tightened coverage, and so we had to hang onto the ball a little bit. We had some chip protection, but we just couldn't get him blocked, plain and simple."

Spence, who transferred from Ohio State, finished with seven tackles, including 3 1/2 for a total loss of 18 yards.

"[Offensive line] coach [Jon] Wiemers put an emphasis on that all week long -- know their moves, know their go-tos, know their weaknesses," junior right tackle Michael Cooke said. "He was by far the best D-lineman I ever went against this year, so hats off to him. That just makes me better, more experience. It makes [left tackle Alex] Snyder better, too, going against somebody like that."

McRoberts handles punt return duties

Southeast Missouri State's Paul McRoberts carries 24 yards to the Eastern Kentucky 3 during the second quarter Saturday, Oct. 17, 2015 at Houck Stadium. Ryan McCrum kicked a field goal after Southeast failed to score on the drive. (Fred Lynch)

Southeast receiver Paul McRoberts had occasionally practiced punt returning in the previous weeks, and when EKU was forced to punt on its first drive of the game, it was McRoberts who was sent onto the field to return.

His first punt return of his Redhawks career was a 29-yard return that set Southeast up at the Colonels 44-yard line.

McRoberts caught Southeast's lone touchdown pass of the game 11 plays later.

He finished the game with three returns for 37 yards.

"I thought he gave us a little spark there," Matukewicz said. "Got to be careful how much you play him just because you don't want to kill the golden goose that lays the golden eggs, but at the same time, I certainly don't want to leave any plays out there. If he can really affect the game, then we're going to try and do that, and I thought he did that.

"We'll watch film, but I would anticipate him being our punt returner."