Gameday blog: Shorter University at Southeast

The Southeast Missouri State football team lost its first game to a non-Division I opponent since the Redhawks moved to the Football Championship Subdivision.

Division II Shorter University defeated the Redhawks 26-21 at Houck Stadium on Saturday.

BJ McCoy scored on a 3-yard touchdown run with 6 minutes, 15 seconds remaining and the Hawks' two-point conversion attempt failed to give Shorter a 26-21 lead.

The Redhawks moved the ball inside the red zone on the fourth play of the next drive with a 53-yard run by Tremane McCullough.

Southeast was pushed back by a false start and a fumble that set up fourth-and-11 from the 30 with 3:09 remaining.

Dante Vandeven was nearly sacked and evaded defenders but his pass fell incomplete to give Shorter the ball back with 3:03 remaining to hang on for the win.

Southeast led 14-7 at halftime but the Hawks tied it with 9:55 remaining in the third on a 37-yard run by McCoy.

Brendan Stewart put the Redhawks back on top with a 5-yard run with 4:00 left in the third.

Shorter scored on an 18-yard pass to Cody Simpson 6 seconds into the fourth quarter, but missed the PAT to make it 21-20 Southeast before McCoy's game-winning touchdown 8: 39 later.

Southeast is now 1-3 on the season and faces Murray State in its OVC opener next Saturday.

The Southeast Missouri State football team leads Division II Shorter 14-7 at halftime at Houck Stadium.

The visiting Hawks scored on their first drive of the game, knocking 8 minutes, 46 seconds off the clock as they went 78 yards on 15 plays.

Quarterback Aaron Bryant ran it in from 3 yards out with 6:14 left in the first quarter to put Shorter up 7-0.

The Hawks threw just one pass -- that was incomplete -- on the first play of the drive. They had runs of 16, 17 and 18 yards on the run-heavy drive.

Southeast freshman quarterback Dante Vandeven, who made his first collegiate start, tied the game with 1:56 left in the quarter.

After completing passes of 17 and 15 yards to sophomore receiver Adrian Davis to move into the red zone, Vandeven carried it 12 yards to the Shorter 5. He punched it in on the next play for his first rushing touchdown.

Shorter punted on the next drive and the Redhawks needed just five plays and 2:22 to take the lead.

The first play of Southeast's drive was a 48-yard run by junior running back Tremane McCullough. Sophomore running back Brendan Stewart capped the drive with an 8-yard run on fourth down to make it 14-7 Southeast with 10:09 left in the half.

Shorter punted on its drive and the Redhawks took over on their 9 with 4:19 left.

QB Tay Bender came in for two plays, rushing for 6 and 4 yards and a first down, before Vandeven reentered.

Vandeven completed consecutive passes of 9 yards to senior receiver Paul McRoberts, 20 yards to senior receiver Peter Lloyd and 13 yards to junior receiver Darrius Darden-Box to get to the Shorter 6 with under a minute remaining in the half. He was then intercepted with 48.3 seconds left in the half at the Shorter 6.

McCullough finished the first half with 62 yards rushing on seven carries. Vandeven had 26 yards on three carries and completed 8 of 10 passes for 79 yards.

Shorter fullback BJ McCOy has 56 yards rushing on 14 carries. Bryan completed 1 of 2 passes for 12 yards.

The Southeast Missouri State football team hosts Division II Shorter University in the Redhawks' final non-conference game of the regular season. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. from Houck Stadium.

Erin Unerstall and Rachel Crader will provide updates from the game.

You can follow along on Twitter @semoballErin or @semoballRachel for live updates throughout the game and you don't have to have a Twitter account to see their posts.

Check out a preview of the game and learn about the Hawks' devastating loss to Football Championship Subdivision foe Kennesaw State last weekend here.

The Redhawks (1-2) are coming off a tough loss of their own to nationally-ranked Indiana State.

Jackson graduate and true freshman quarterback Dante Vandeven made his collegiate debut in the second half against the Sycamores and led the Redhawks on three fourth-quarter touchdown drives, but the Redhawks' two-point conversion pass with no time remaining was incomplete in their 29-28 loss.

Vandeven will make his first career start against the Hawks today. Check out Erin's midweek update on Vandeven here and read more about Southeast's near upset of the Sycamores here.

Rachel's column on Vandeven's impressive debut can be found here

A notebook from the game, which highlights running back Tremane McCullough's breakout game in the absence of DeMichael Jackson, is available here.