Gameday blog: Murray State at Southeast

Southeast Missouri State held Murray State to a field goal in the second half as the Redhawks began Ohio Valley Conference play with a win.

Southeast improved to 2-3 and 1-0 in the OVC with a 27-10 defeat of the Racers on Saturday night.

The Redhawks led 10-7 at halftime and extended their lead to 17-7 with a 3-yard run by Tremane McCullough with 11:26 remaining in the third quarter.

MSU cut it to 17-10 on a 21-yard field goal by Connor Mitchell, which was as close as it would get.

Paul McRoberts scored on an 8-yard pass with 24 seconds left in the third and Ryan McCrum hit a 30-yard field goal with 2:35 left in the game for the final score.

Complete game coverage will be on semoball.com later tonight.

The Southeast Missouri State football team leads Murray State 10-7 at halftime of its Ohio Valley Conference opener.

The Redhawks' defense held the Racers, who entered the game with the conference's top third-down conversion percentage, to 2 of 7 on third-down attempts.

Southeast's defense made a fourth-down stop on the first drive of the game. MSU moved the ball to the Southeast 1-yard line where it was held on second and third down. Racers' quarterback KD Humphries completed a fourth-down pass to Drew Rutland, who fumbled into the end zone for a touchback.

MSU got on the board with 1 minute, 59 seconds left in the first quarter on a 7-yard run by Roman Clay to take a 7-0 lead.

Southeast's ensuing drive, which continued into the second quarter, was capped with a 25-yard field goal by Ryan McCrum to cut it to 7-3 with 12:31 left in the half.

Humphries punted to the Southeast 1 on MSU's next drive, but the Redhawks put together a 12-play, 99-yard drive that ended with a 24-yard touchdown pass to Paul McRoberts.

McRoberts broke a tackle and dove at the end zone, just hitting the pylon for the score that made it 10-7 Southeast with 5:01 left in the half.

Southeast's next drive moved to the Murray 36 before QB Dante Vandeven was intercepted.

Vandeven completed 12 of 18 passes for 144 yards in the first half. McRoberts had five catches for 98 yards and a TD.

Running back Tremane McCullough had 74 yards rushing on 14 carries.

Humphries completed 16 of 25 passes for 144 yards. Jeremy Harness and Janawski Davis had five catches apiece for 60 and 58 yards, respectively.

Clay rushed for 67 yards and a TD on eight carries.

Ohio Valley Conference football action returns to Houck Stadium on Saturday night. The Southeast Missouri State football team hosts Murray State in its conference opener, which kicks off at 6 p.m.

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 Racers here.

Southeast will look to snap a two-game losing streak after sustaining a 26-21 loss to Division II Shorter University last weekend.

The Redhawks, who struggled against Shorter's triple option, will face an entirely different type of offense in the Racers this week. Read about how they've been preparing for MSU's up-tempo attack and improving on third-down defense here.

Dante Vandeven is set to start at quarterback for the Redhawks. A notebook highlighting the offense's performance in his first start can be found here.

Star receiver Paul McRoberts only had two catches against Shorter, which Rachel features in her column here.