Gameday blog: Eastern Illinois at Southeast

Our view from the press box at Houck Stadium, as Southeast Missouri State takes on Eastern Illinois at Houck Stadium.

For the first time this season, Southeast Missouri State holds a halftime lead, up 14-7 on No. 13 Eastern Illinois.

It was a great start for Redhawks, who pushed EIU to three-and-out on the game's first series and then turned around on offense and put together a seven-play, 51-yard drive with a Jesse Hosket keeper on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line.

On the next Southeast drive, the hosts went big on the first play from scrimmage, as Hosket hit Adrian Davis deep for a 62-yard TD and a 14-0 lead.

The Panthers ran the ball well on the ensuing drive, and Chris Anderson finished it off with an 18-yard TD run that cut the lead to 14-7.

The SEMO defense recovered a fumble inside its own 10-yard line to snuff out an EIU drive, and the Panthers missed a 46-yard field goal in the second quarter.

Eastern Illinois ran 45 plays for 223 yards in the first half, converting six of 12 third downs.

Panther quarterback Austin Green is 13 of 21 for 139 yards. Devin Church leads the rushing attack with four carries for 45 yards.

SEMO QB Hosket is 6 of 9 for 130 yards and a touchdown. Will Young has six rushes for 27 yards.

Southeast outside linebacker Chad Meredith, who left last week's game with an injury, leads all defenders with eight tackles.

The Southeast Missouri State football team continues its Ohio Valley Conference schedule against Eastern Illinois at 6 p.m. Saturday at Houck Stadium.

Trent Singer and Josh Mlot will provide updates from the game.

You can follow along on Twitter @semoballTrent and @semoballJosh 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 more about the Panthers here.

The Redhawks will try to put together a two-game winning streak after coming away with a 17-16 come-from-behind win over Murray State in last week's OVC opener. Southeast struggled on offense but was able to sustain some offense and put together a game-winning drive in the final minutes.

Southeast's front seven proved to be a factor in the win over Murray State, but the offense wants to be more efficient on early downs. Read more about it in this week's practice noteboook.