Gameday blog: Tennessee Tech at Southeast

The Southeast Missouri State football team scored 17 points in a span of 5 minutes, 18 seconds to break open its game against Tennessee Tech on Saturday at Houck Stadium.

Two touchdowns came on special teams in that span as the Redhawks defeated the Golden Eagles 38-17.

Darrius Darden-Box blocked a TTU punt and returned it seven yards for a score with 7:48 left in the third quarter.

Just 1:16 later safety Eriq Moore intercepted a pass and the Redhawks' next drive ended with a 50-yard field goal by Ryan McCrum.

TTU punted on its next drive and Paul McRoberts returned it 69 yards for a touchdown that pushed the Redhawks lead to 31-10 with 2:30 left in the third.

Southeast led 14-10 at halftime.

TTU scored on a 1-yard run by Dorian Carter with 13:12 remaining to cut it to 31-17.

Quarterback Dante Vandeven scored on an 8-yard run with 2:24 left for the final score.

Southeast improved to 3-5 and 2-2 in the Ohio Valley Conference while TTU lost its fifth straight and dropped to 2-7 and 1-5 in the conference.

The Redhawks travel to Austin Peay next weekend to face the Colonels.

The Southeast Missouri State heads into halftime with a 14-10 lead over visiting Tennessee Tech.

Mike Ford intercepted a Golden Eagles pass at the Southeast 2-yard line with 35 seconds left in the first half to maintain the Redhawks' lead going into the break.

Southeast went three-and-out on its first drive and TTU's John Arnold made a 47-yard field goal on the Golden Eagles' first drive to go up 3-0 with 3 minutes, 25 seconds into the game.

The teams each punted on their next drives before Southeast took a 7-3 lead on the second play of its third drive.

Junior running back Tremane McCullough escaped up the middle and ran untouched into the end zone for an 81-yard score with 4:12 left in the first.

TTU answered on its next drive, which began with a 47-yard pass to Krys Cates down to the Southeast 2. Dorian Carter ran it in from 1 yard to put the Golden Eagles up 10-7 with 2:47 left in the first.

Ryan McCrum missed a 47-yard field goal on Southeast's next drive.

Southeast regained the lead at 14-10 with a 1-yard run by quarterback Dante Vandevenwith 3:46 left in the half.

Vandeven completed 8 of 12 passes for 97 yards. Paul McRoberts has 46 yards receiving on a pair of catches.

McCullough has 98 yards rushing on nine carries while Vandeven has 59 yards on eight carries.

Brock McCoin, who is TTU's leading receiver, started at quarterback for TTU due to injuries to starter Jared Davis and backup Colby Brown.

McCoin completed 4 of 8 passes for 83 yards and rushed for 83 yards on 13 carries.

The Southeast Missouri State football team hosts Tennessee Tech for its Pink Up game. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.

The Redhawks will wear pink jerseys for the game that were auctioned off and raised more than $16,000 to provide mammograms for women in the area that could not afford them otherwise.

Erin Unerstall will provide updates from Houck Stadium. 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.

TTU has yet to win a game in the month of October after losing to the top 4 teams in the Ohio Valley Conference over the last four weeks. A preview of the Redhawks' game against the Golden Eagles can be found here.

The Redhawks are 2-5 and 1-2 in conference after a 27-10 loss to nationally-ranked Eastern Kentucky two weeks ago.

A notebook taking a closer look at senior receiver Paul McRoberts handling punt returns, an EKU tight end's career day vs. the Redhawks and more can be found here.

A photo gallery from the game can be viewed here.