A tenacious and gritty Southeast Missouri State University football effort did not produce a victory Saturday night, but it certainly left an impression on Murray State.

The Indians battled the powerful Racers on virtually even terms the entire game, but two costly mistakes helped Murray claim a hard-fought 26-14 victory in front of 6,217 fans at Houck Stadium.

Murray, ranked ninth and 12th in the two national Division I-AA polls, improved to 3-0 overall and 1-0 in Ohio Valley Conference play.

Southeast fell to 1-2 overall, 0-1 in the OVC.

"You just really have to take your hat off to SEMO for the way they played tonight," said Murray quarterback Justin Fuente. "They played us tough the last couple of years and their defense really had a good plan tonight.

"We didn't play like we're capable, but we're just glad to get out of here with a win."

Fuente, a transfer from Oklahoma, completed 15 of 29 passes for 230 yards and three touchdowns.

Southeast coach John Mumford, while disappointed with the loss, was certainly proud of the way the Indians battled against a team that a lot of people thought would roll over his squad.

"I'm sure we probably surprised a lot of people," said Mumford. "This is probably the most complete game we've played. It came down to a couple of plays, but I believe this football team is on the verge of good things."

The two plays Mumford referred to were basically the difference in the game.

One came in the closing seconds of the first half. The score was 7-7 and the Indians had just taken over on the Murray 49-yard line with 1:04 left before the intermission.

Mumford figured that, with the way the Indians had moved the ball for much of the first half behind quarterback Kevin Seto -- making his first start in place of Jeff Shaw, who had started the previous two games -- the opportunity was there for them to at least get in position for a field-goal attempt.

But on third-and-four from the Murray 43, Seto's pass was intercepted by linebacker Gary Humphrey at his 35. After breaking several tackles during a spectacular return, Humphrey was in the end zone on a 65-yard run with just 20 seconds left in the half. Murray led 14-7 at the break.

"That was costly," Mumford said. "We wanted to get into field-goal range but it didn't work out."

The second critical play came late in the third quarter with Southeast trailing 20-14.

With Southeast punting in its own territory, a low snap from Dan Stubinski bounced back to punter Justin Keen, who had the ball squirt through his legs before the Indians finally fell on it.

Murray took over possession at the Southeast eight-yard line and, after a penalty set the Racers back to the 10, Fuente hit Shaun Boykins with a 10-yard scoring strike that made it 26-14 with 14:48 left in the game.

"We gave them two scores and that was the difference," Mumford said.

The statistics were virtually even as Southeast had 264 yards to 295 for the Racers.

Corey Williams led Southeast's ground attack with 75 yards on 22 carries while Broderick Benson added 47 yards on 11 attempts.

Southeast used three quarterbacks. Seto played the entire first half, Shaw played the entire third quarter and much of the final period and Bobby Brune came in late during the Indians' final possession.

Seto led a first-half touchdown drive and was 9-for-18 for 89 yards.

Shaw led a third-quarter TD march and was 6-for-8 for 86 yards.

Brune was 4-for-6 for 50 yards in a final drive that ended on downs.

Dante Bryant caught eight passes while Leslie Weaver and Corey Chester both had four receptions.

Southeast's impressive defensive performance was led by Kevin Meachem with two sacks. John Borne recovered a fumble and Brian Hinton got an interception.

Jai Williams had two of the Racers' seven sacks.

Southeast's defense held Murray to no first downs on its first three possessions, but the Racers took a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter on a 25-yard pass from Fuente to Terrence Tillman.

The Indians moved 81 yards behind Seto to tie the game on a 29-yard run by Benson with 5:48 left in the second quarter.

Humphrey's interception put the Racers ahead at halftime and a three-yard pass from Fuente to Shayne Stevens made it 20-7 early in the third quarter.

Southeast came right back as Shaw directed an 82-yard drive, capped by Williams' one-yard run with 6:28 left in the third period that made it 20-14.

That's the way things stood until the Racers capitalized on the Indians' botched punt.