MIRACLE WIN: LATE INDIAN TD COMPLETES IMPROBABLE COMEBACK VICTORY

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Unbelievable. Amazing. Incredible. Miraculous.

Any or all of the above words would be appropriate to describe Southeast Missouri State University's first victory of the 2000 football season and also the Indians' initial triumph in the Tim Billings era.

The Indians saw host Southern Illinois score on its first five possessions of the opening half Saturday afternoon as the Salukis built a 31-0 lead. Southeast trailed 31-7 at halftime and the Indians were, needless to say, in deep trouble.

"At the half, everybody in the stadium knew we didn't have a chance," said Billings, Southeast's first-year head coach. "It was just a matter of how many (points) they (SIU) could score."

Southeast quickly gave up a safety early in the second half to fall behind 33-7. What appeared to be a hopeless situation to begin with had disintegrated even further.

"It looked really ugly," said Southeast wide receiver Leslie Weaver.

But a funny thing happened on the way to SIU's routine romp -- the Indians staged an improbable rally, scoring the game's final 27 points to stun the Salukis 34-33 in front of 8,000 fans at McAndrew Stadium.

The comeback was capped with 1:16 to play when Weaver took a short pass from backup quarterback Bobby Brune, broke a tackle, picked up a block and used his speed to ramble 63 yards to the end zone.

Thus fortified with their only lead of the game, the Indians sealed the win when Ryan Roth recovered an Ian Skinner fumble on the ensuing kickoff. With SIU out of timeouts, all Brune had to do was kneel down twice to run out the clock.

When the final gun sounded, the Indians celebrated on SIU's field like they had just won a national championship. But the way things started out, who could blame them?

"It was unbelievable," said a smiling Brune, who helped spark the Indians' comeback after taking over when Rashad West suffered a sprained ankle late in the first half. "The coaches talked in the locker room (at halftime) about believing. They said we could do it."

Said Weaver of the winning touchdown that came on a third-and-three play, "It was a low ball. I just scooped it up, broke one tackle and saw daylight. The blocking was great."

The 5-foot-7 Weaver, who has exceptional speed, said he never before had scored a game-winning touchdown.

"Not even in high school," he said with a huge grin. "It's a great feeling, and it's a great win for us."

Said Billings, whose first Southeast squad is now 1-1 after bouncing back from last week's 63-7 loss at Division I-A power Marshall, "It's hard to think clearly right now, but I don't know if I've ever seen a team come back from 31-0, especially the way we were playing.

"We were getting totally dominated in all three phases (offense, defense and special teams). But our assistant coaches made some great adjustments at halftime, we believed and we came back."

On Weaver's winning touchdown, Billings said, "I knew we could get a first down, and if they blitzed, it could go all the way with Leslie's speed. They blitzed, Leslie broke a tackle, we got one block and then he used his speed."

For the Salukis, who are now 0-2, it was a bitter pill to swallow.

"This was probably the most disappointing loss I've had here," said SIU coach Jan Quarless, who had suffered plenty of tough defeats during his previous three seasons with the Salukis.

With tailback Tom Koutsos running wild in the first half, the Salukis scored touchdowns on their first three possessions, kicked a field goal on their fourth and got another TD on their fifth to go up 31-0 with just under seven minutes left before halftime.

Brune, taking over after West was hurt, then led Southeast's only touchdown drive of the opening half, directing an 80-yard march that ended with Mark Blissett's 2-yard run with 5:15 left. The first of four Nick Reggio conversions made it 31-7 at the break.

At halftime, Koutsos had rushed for 159 yards and three touchdowns, but Southeast's defense held him to 30 yards in the second half. The Indians' allowed just 95 yards and five first downs in the final two quarters to play a big part in the comeback.

"We just weren't playing hard (in the first half)," said Billings of his defense. "We just got after it and did a lot better job (in the second half)."

The Indians gave no indication of a monumental comeback early in the second half as punter Kyle East -- kicking because Jason Witczak has a knee injury -- dropped a snap in the end zone and alertly kicked it out of the back of the end zone, avoiding a possible SIU touchdown but giving the Salukis a safety that made it 33-7 just 1:35 into the half.

But that was to be SIU's final points of the day. With 3:32 left in the third quarter, Byron White's 2-yard run capped a 65-yard drive and made it 33-14.

Then came one of the real momentum-changing plays for the Indians. SIU was forced to punt and exciting junior-college transfer Curtis Cooper broke several tackles on his way to a dazzling 66-yard return that pulled Southeast to within 33-21 with 1:04 left in the third quarter.

Early in the final period, with SIU driving toward what might have been a clinching score, safety Isaac Powell intercepted a Sherard Poteete pass at the Southeast 16 and returned it 68 yards to the SIU 16.

With 9:21 left, true freshman tight end Charles McElroy caught a 4-yard TD pass from Brune. All of a sudden the Indians trailed just 33-28 as the several hundred Southeast fans in attendance began making some serious noise.

With five minutes left, the Indians took over at their own 28, but Brune was stopped for no gain on a fourth-and-one option play, giving SIU possession at the Southeast 37 with 3:26 remaining.

But, as it did the entire second half, Southeast's defense held firm and SIU's Scott Everhart missed a 47-yard field-goal attempt, giving the Indians the ball back at their 30 with 1:55 remaining.

Then came the short third-down pass to Weaver that he turned into the Indians' play of the season so far. And when SIU fumbled the ensuing kickoff, the amazing comeback was complete.

"We never gave up. We kept believing," Weaver said. "It was a total team effort."