Gameday blog: Southern Illinois at Southeast

FINAL: Southeast Missouri State fell to Southern Illinois 35-17.

After going down, 7-3, in the first quarter, the Redhawks (0-3) never led against the rival Salukis (2-0).

The night was full of self-inflicted mistakes for SEMO, leading to a feeling of deja vu as the team remained winless on the season and stretched its losing streak to six games, dating back to October of 2016.

Southeast quarterback Jesse Hosket finished 20-of-38 for 166 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions.

REdhawks running back Marquis Terry led all rushers with 90 yards and a TD on 21 carries.

SIU quarterback Sam Straub finished 13-for-29 for 206 yards, four touchdowns and an interception. Darrell James was his top target, with six catches for 119 yards and two TDs.

Check back on Semoball.com for full stories on the game.

Southeast is back in action on Saturday, going on the road to open Ohio Valley Conference play at Eastern Illinois.

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Things started well for Southeast Missouri State on Saturday evening, but the first half wasn't especially rosy, as SEMO went into halftime down 28-10.

Southern Illinois fumbled the ball away on the first play from scrimmage in the game, giving the Redhawks possession in Saluki territory. A pair of SIU penalties pushed the home side deep, but ultimately Southeast settled for a field goal and a 3-0 lead.

Things got decidedly worse after that, as a quick 31-yard pass from Sam Straub to Raphael Leonard pushed Southern Illinois down the field, and a SEMO penalty on a field-goal attempt kept the visitors alive, allowing them to ultimately find the end zone on a Leonard catch for a 7-3 lead with 8:34 left in the first quarter.

SIU led the rest of the first half.

Self-inflicted wounds haunted the Redhawks, and the Slukis made it 14-3 thanks to a 2-yard TD run by Jonathan Mixon on the first play of the second quarter.

Southern Illinois added to that on a 38-yard TD throw from Straub to Darrell James with 11:24 on the clock for a 21-3 lead.

Southeast put together a sustained drive to finally get on the scoreboard at 1:49 of the second quarter, with a 5 1/2-minute drive capped by a 2-yard TD run by Marquis Terry, making the score 21-10.

The late score seemed to set SEMO up well going into halftime, but SIU went 58 yards on five plays and 43 seconds, with James hauling in his second TD (37 yards) with 43 seconds left on the clock.

Hosket was intercepted on the ensuing possession, but the Redhawks avoided further calamity by blocking a 47-yard field goal attempt by the Salukis.

Hosket was 12-of-20 for 93 yards in the first half, an average of just 7.8 yards per catch.

SIU quarterback Sam Straub was 10-of-20 for 193 yards and three scores.

Terry leads all rushers with 40 yards and a TD on 12 carries.

James has five catches for 112 yards and two touchdowns for Southern Illinois.

Southeast is just 1 of 7 on third downs and had nine penalties for 104 yards — nearly as many as its 162 yards of total offense.

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The Southeast Missouri State football team will take on regional rival Southern Illinois in its home opener at 6 p.m. Saturday at Houck Field.

Southeast Missourian sports reporter Trent Singer and sports editor Josh Mlot will provide updates from the game.

You can follow along on Twitter @semoballTrent and @semoballJosh, and you don't need to have a twitter account to see the tweets.

Southeast (0-2) and Southern Illinois (1-0) will meet for the 85th time today. The Salukis opened their season last week with a 55-3 win over visiting Mississippi Valley State. SIU gained nearly 600 total yards of offense against the Delta Devils, scoring five of its offensive touchdowns on the ground. Click here for a full game preview of Saturday's game.

After dropping a 38-16 decision at Football Bowl Subdivision opponent Kansas in Week 1, the Redhawks fell to Dayton 25-23 in Week 2. Southeast was set back by its own mistakes throughout the game but put together a nine-play, 87-yard scoring drive to pull within two points inside the final minute. An interception on the two-point conversion sealed the Flyers' victory. The complete game story from last week's game is available here, and you can click here to read the notebook.