Gameday blog: Southeast at Eastern Illinois

After trailing by as many as 20 points midway through the third quarter the Southeast Missouri State football team battled back before falling 33-28 to Eastern Illinois.

EIU, which led 13-7 at half, extended its lead to 27-7 with t6 minutes, 34 seconds remaining in the third after 11 and 65-yard touchdown catches by Addison Bounds.

Southeast cut it to 27-14 with an 8-yard pass to Lewis Washington with 4:23 left in the third and a 1-yard run by Dante Vandeven with 13:39 remaining in the game cut it to 27-21.

EIU answered with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Devin Church and a failed two-point conversion pass made it 33-21 EIU.

Southeast scored on an 8-yard Paul McRoberts reception with 5:30 left to make it 33-28.

The Panthers picked up two first downs on the ensuing drive to take time off the clock before punting.

The Redhawks took over on their own 5 with 35 seconds remaining and moved into EIU territory. Vandeven attempted a shot to the end zone as time expired that was knocked down by the Panthers.

The Redhawks are now 1-1 in the Ohio Valley Conference.

The Southeast Missouri State football team compiled just 76 yards of offense and didn't score an offensive touchdown in the first half as it trails Eastern Illinois 13-7 at at the break.

EIU needed just 2 minutes, 30 seconds to take a 7-0 lead on a 3-yard run by Devin Church.

The Panthers, which punted on their next two drives, went up 10-0 on a 21-yard field goal by Nick Bruno with 51 seconds left in the first quarter.

Bruno made a 39-yard field goal with 5:28 left in the half to go up 13-0.

The Redhawks punted five times in the first half and didn't move into EIU territory until Darrius Darden-Box caught a career-long 25-yard pass with less than five minutes remaining in the second quarter move to the EIU 42. That drive ended with a punt but Southeast sophomore linebacker Josh Kinder intercepted a Jalen Whitlow pass on the first play of the ensuing drive and returned it 28 yards for a score that cut it to 13-7.

QB Dante Vandeven completed 9 of 12 passes for 51 yards and was picked off on the Redhawks' second drive of the game. Vandeven has 20 yards on two carries while RB Tremane McCullough has 5 yards on nine carries.

Whitlow completed 11 of 20 passes with an INT for 119 yards and rushed for 23 yards on four carries.

Church has 60 yards rushing on 12 carries. EIU had 11 first downs and 209 yards of offense in the first half.

The Southeast Missouri State and Eastern Illinois football teams enter today's 1 p.m. contest in Charleston, Illinois, with 1-0 records in the Ohio Valley Conference.

Erin Unerstall will provide updates from O'Brien Field. You can follow along on Twitter @semoballErin for live updates throughout the game and you don't have to have a Twitter account to see the posts.

The game will be televised on ESPN3.

EIU, which has won the last three meetings with the Redhawks, is 1-3 on the season and coming off a win over Austin Peay. You can learn more about the Panthers in a preview of the game here.

Southeast snapped a two-game losing streak with a 27-10 victory over Murray State last weekend in its conference opener. The Redhawks' red zone defense was key in the win that brought their record to 2-3 on the season.

Rachel Crader wrote about the state of the Redhawks football program in her final column here.

Southeast senior receiver Paul McRoberts, who had just two catches in the team's loss to Shorter University the week before, had a season-high eight catches for 189 yards and two touchdowns in the win, including an impressive 44-yard catch that nabbed him the No. 5 spot on SportsCenter's Top 10. You can read more about McRoberts' spectacular night along with details on running back Tremane McCullough's 220-yard rushing performance in Erin's game notebook.

McRoberts, McCullough and linebacker Chad Meredith earned OVC weekly honors following the victory vs. the Racers. McCullough also received national recognition after setting a new career high for the third consecutive week and becoming the first Redhawk to rush for more than 200 yards since 2012.

Erin took a closer look in practice this week at Southeast's offensive line that's paving the way for the Redhawks' impressive running attack and also provided an update on Southeast's injuries, including ACL injuries for sophomore WR Adrian Davis and sophomore nose tackle Joshua Wilson.