Redhawks End Season on Three-Game Winning Streak with 46-23 Victory Over Tennessee State

Sunday, April 11

Nashville, Tenn.

2:30 PM

Southeast Missouri State University

4-4 , 4-3

Tennessee State

2-5 , 2-5

Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final F
SEMO	16	14	9	7	46
Tennessee State	6	3	0	14	23

4/11/2021 7:53:00 PM | Football

Box Score Final Statistics

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Geno Hess ran for 87 yards and three touchdowns to lead Southeast Missouri (4-4, 4-3) to a 46-23 win over Tennessee State (2-5, 2-5) Sunday afternoon in its season finale at Hale Stadium.

The Redhawks wrapped up their season on a three-game winning streak behind their season-best 325 rushing yards.

SEMO scored 30 points in the first two quarters en route to a 30-9 halftime advantage.

The Redhawks scored their first points of a game on a safety when Kamden Edwards was dropped in his own end zone by Aaron Alston with 12:48 remaining in the first quarter.

On SEMO's first possession Hess ran for a 16-yard touchdown to finish off a 5-play, 38-yard drive to push the Redhawks lead to 9-0 at the 10:04 mark.

TSU got on the board with a 39-yard touchdown pass from Deveon Bryant to Josh Trueheart, but the Redhawks immediately answered the next time they had the ball.

Andrew Bunch threw completions of 12 and 15 yards to Alston and then ran for a combined 32 yards on the next two plays. Two plays later, Hess scored his second rushing touchdown from 19 yards out to extend SEMO's lead to 16-6 with 5:16 to play in the first quarter.

Early in the second quarter, Bunch tossed a 7-yard touchdown pass to Zack Smith to close out a nice 10-play, 87-yard march and give the Redhawks a 23-6 lead.

The Tigers managed to get three more points on a 20-yard field goal by Antonio Zita before Smith made a highlight-reel play on special teams.

With TSU in punt formation, Smith stole the ball right off punter Kaleb Mosley's foot and ran into the end zone widening the Redhawks margin to 30-9 with 6:36 to go in the second quarter.

Omardrick Douglas also blocked a kick before the first half ended. Douglas' blocked field goal was recovered by Shabari Davis at the TSU 30-yard line.

Kenny Doak kicked a 26-yard field goal and Hess hit paydirt for the third time adding nine more points to SEMO's lead in the third quarter.

Bunch, after throwing a 44-yard completion to Alston to get SEMO to the TSU 37-yard line, later punched it in on a 5-yard touchdown run for SEMO's final touchdown of the contest.

Hess carried the ball 11 times and averaged nearly eight yards (7.9) per touch. It was the second time he ran for at least three touchdowns in a game this season.

Bunch completed 12-of-22 passes for 182 yards and a touchdown, and ran for 69 yards and another score. Johnny King and Alston each caught three passes for 71 yards, as well.

Additionally, SEMO racked up a season-high 505 yards of total offense.

Defensively, Lawrence Johnson paved the way with six tackles.

Special teams wise, the Redhawks put together a strong performance with their pair of blocked kicks.

With today's victory, SEMO's group of 18 seniors became the winningest senior class in program history. This senior class (2017-2020) notched 25 wins in their careers.