MACOMB, Ill. – Brandon Epton, Jr. ran for 110 yards and a touchdown and Southeast Missouri (4-7, 3-4) scored 19 unanswered points en route to a 22-17 victory over Western Illinois (3-8, 2-5) Saturday.
 
SEMO trailed, 17-3, with 2:35 left in the second quarter before pulling off its come-from-behind win.
 
The Redhawk defense held WIU scoreless in the second half and stopped the Leathernecks four times on fourth down in the game's last two quarters.
 
Antonio Chadha missed his second field goal of the game, a 38-yarder at the start of the third quarter.
 
On SEMO's first play of the second half, Epton, Jr. took the handoff, ran to his left and dashed 80 yards down the far sideline for a touchdown. His team-best sixth rushing touchdown of the season tied the game at 17-17 with 12:02 remaining in the third quarter.
 
Epton, Jr. became the third SEMO player in program history to rush for an 80-yard touchdown joining Tay Bender (Sept. 19, 2015, at Indiana State) and Chaun Tate (Oct. 25, 2003, vs. Murray State). 
 
WIU was at its own 10-yard line when Carson Carswell was penalized for an intentional grounding in the end zone. The play resulted in a safety giving the Redhawks their first lead at 19-17 with 14:10 to play in the fourth quarter.
 
Ryan Kingston's punt was downed by Cole Ruble at the Leathernecks 1-yard line. WIU managed to get to SEMO's 44-yard line when Trel Riley intercepted Carswell's pass and ran to the Redhawks 33 with a little over seven minutes on the clock. 
 
After SEMO stopped WIU on fourth down, Justin Keller made a 39-yard field goal into the wind to seal the victory.
 
WIU scored the game's first 10 points to get an early advantage.
 
Chadha made a 53-yard field goal for the first points of the contest and Carswell threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Markell Holman to put the Leathernecks ahead, 10-0, with 4:58 remaining in the first quarter.
 
Jeremy Walton forced a fumble and Steven Lewis recovered at the WIU 21-yard line. For Walton, it was his team-high fourth forced fumble of the season.
 
SEMO later settled for a 32-yard field goal by Keller to narrow WIU's lead to 10-3 with 8:56 left to play in the second quarter.
 
Carswell threw his second touchdown pass of the game when he hooked up with Demari Davis on a 17-yard completion to push the Leathernecks lead to 17-3 at the 2:35 mark.
 
Jobe Bryant made receptions of 22 and 10 yards to get SEMO into WIU territory.
 
After Johnny Weber threw a 6-yard pass to Donnie Cheers getting the Redhawks to the Leathernecks 6-yard line, Ruble caught a 6-yard pass and dove for the pylon. Ruble's touchdown made it a one-score game (17-10) at the half.
 
Epton, Jr. ran the ball 13 times and averaged 8.5 yards per carry. He ran for over 100 yards for the second time in his career.
 
Weber, who started for the injured Jax Leatherwood, completed 22-of-38 passes for 193 yards and one touchdown. 
 
As a team, SEMO finished with a season-high 179 rushing yards.
 
Kingston dropped three of his punts inside the 20-yard line, including two inside the five giving WIU a long field late in the game.
 
Defensively, SEMO had two takeaways. Cole Dutkovich paved the way with 11 tackles. The Redhawks added five sacks, two forced fumbles one interception and nine tackles for loss.
 
The Redhawks picked up their first road win of the season in their last away contest of the season.
 
SEMO closes out its season when it hosts Lindenwood in the Game Ball Brawl on Nov. 22.