Lindenwood (5-6, 4-3 OVC-Big South) vs. Southeast Missouri (4-7, 3-4 OVC-Big South)

Game Information
Date: Saturday, November 22, 2025
Kickoff: 1 p.m., CT
Location: Cape Girardeau, Mo.
Facility: Houck Field (8,000)
Surface: Field Turf
Series: SEMO leads, 2-1
Last Meeting: LIN 24, SEMO 12 | 11/9/24 | St. Charles, Mo.
Last Meeting in Cape Girardeau: SEMO 45, LIN 7 | 9/9/23

Head Coaches
Lindenwood: Jed Stugart (133-64 overall; 42-40 at LIN; 30-26 OVC-Big South)
Southeast Missouri: Tom Matukewicz (68-70 overall; 67-70 at SEMO; 50-36 OVC-Big South)

Follow the Redhawks
Video: ESPN+  (Erik Sean, Rick Wieser)
Live Stats: SEMORedhawks.com
Radio: Real Rock 99.3 FM (Erik Sean, Rick Wieser)
X: @SEMOfootball
Game Notes: Southeast Missouri (PDF) 

Game Ball Brawl
•    In-state schools Southeast Missouri (4-7, 3-4) and Lindenwood (5-6, 4-3) square off in the Game Ball Brawl Saturday. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m., CT at Houck Field.
•    Saturday's game is the season finale for both teams.
•    The rivalry game is sponsored by MRV Banks.
•    SEMO won the Game Ball Brawl trophy the first two years the teams played each other. LU, however, has the trophy after beating the Redhawks in St. Charles a year ago.
•    The Redhawks and Lions are the only Division I schools in Missouri that are conference rivals.

Series History
•    This year marks the fourth meeting between Southeast Missouri and Lindenwood, schools located 174 miles apart.
•    SEMO leads the series, 2-1.
•    LU defeated the Redhawks for the first time with a 24-12 victory in St. Charles last season.

2025 Finale
•    Southeast Missouri wraps up its season at home for the ninth time under Head Coach Tom Matukewicz.
•    SEMO ended its season with a win five times with Matukewicz at the helm in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021.
•    The Redhawks are looking to end a streak of three-straight losses in season-ending contests.

Farewell Seniors
•    Southeast Missouri will honor its 27 seniors prior to kickoff of Saturday's game vs. Lindenwood.
•    Ryan Kingston, Trel Riley, Kam Robinson, Brandon Epton, Jr., McCoy Casey, Adrian Patterson, Slade Dollar, Patrick Heitert, Latrevion Thompson, Jeremy Walton, Justus Johnson, Judd Cunningham, Jamauri Chislom, Justin Keller, Nolan Reed, Jalen Nettles, Nasim Cairo, Jackson Marx, Jacob Cox, Trey Gibbs, Kobe Williams, Rashad Turner, Jack Clinkenbeard, Kierrie Conley, Sam Keeper, Caleb Webb and Steven Lewis are this year's seniors.
•    Jared Pedraza is a graduate.

First Road Win
•    Southeast Missouri scored the final 19 points of the game to pull off a 22-17 come-from-behind win over Western Illinois (Nov. 15) for its first road victory of the season.
•    SEMO ended a streak of seven-straight road losses dating back to 2024.
•    It was the Redhawks first road win since they beat Charleston Southern, 26-13, on Oct. 19, 2024.

Huge Defensive Effort
•    The Redhawk defense shutout Western Illinois in the second half to nail down their road win on Nov. 15.
•    Southeast Missouri forced two turnovers, posted five sacks and had nine tackles for loss.
•    The Redhawks also stopped the Leathernecks four times on fourth down.

Epton, Jr. Rushes for Season-High
•    Brandon Epton, Jr. ran for a season-high 110 yards and one touchdown against Western Illinois (Nov. 15).
•    Epton, Jr. carried the ball 13 times and averaged 8.5 yards per attempt. He ran for an 80-yard touchdown to tie the game at 17-17 with 11:47 left to play in the third quarter.
•    It was the second time in his career where Epton, Jr. ran for over 100 yards.
•    He also became the third SEMO player in program history to run for an 80-yard touchdown joining Tay Bender (Sept. 19, 2015, at Indiana State) and Chaun Tate (Oct. 25, 2003, vs. Murray State).

Matukewicz Gets 50th Conference Win
•    Tom Matukewicz picked up his 50th career Ohio Valley Conference-Big South Association win when the Redhawks took down Western Illinois, 22-17, on Nov. 15.
•    Matukewicz is now 50-36 in conference games.
•    His 50 conference victories are the most of any head coach in Southeast Missouri's NCAA Division I era.

Special Performance
•    Punter Ryan Kingston did an excellent job of flipping the field at Western Illinois (Nov. 15).
•    Kingston dropped three of his nine punts inside the 20-yard line late in the game.
•    He pinned WIU at its own 10, 3 and 1-yard lines on those kicks.
•    Additionally, all of Kingston's punts in the second half were into the wind.

Career-High for Dutkovich
•    Inside linebacker Cole Dutkovich turned in a career-high 11 tackles to lead Southeast Missouri's defense at Western Illinois (Nov. 15).
•    Dutkovich had seven solo tackles, two sacks and 2.5 tackles for loss in his first double-digit tackle performance.

Weber Makes Fourth Start
•    Johnny Weber made his fourth career start at quarterback at Western Illinois (Nov. 15).
•    Weber completed 22-of-38 passes for 193 yards and one touchdown. He did not throw an interception, as well.
•    He started for Jax Leatherwood who was sidelined with an ankle injury.

One-Score Games
•    Each of Southeast Missouri's last three contests have been one-score games.
•    SEMO dropped a 23-17 decision at home against Charleston Southern (Nov. 1) and fell to Gardner-Webb (Nov. 8), 27-24, on the road. The Redhawks then beat Western Illinois (Nov. 15), 22-17, on the road.
•    Combined, the Redhawks scored 40 points in the second half, including 26 in the fourth quarter of those games.
•    Since 2023, SEMO has been involved in 13 one-score games.
•    The Redhawks are 4-9 in those contests.

First in Passing Offense
•    Southeast Missouri leads the OVC-Big South in passing offense with 272.6 yards per game.
•    SEMO has 2,999 yards and 19 passing touchdowns through 11 contests.
•    The Redhawks are one yard away from reaching 3,000 passing yards in a season for the fifth time in program history.
•    Jax Leatherwood tops the conference with 246.1 passing yards per game.
•    The Redhawks are 11th in the FCS in passing offense.

Red Zone Offense
•    Southeast Missouri ranks seventh Football Championship Subdivision in red zone offense.
•    SEMO has scored on 27 of its 29 opportunities in the red zone.
•    The Redhawks scored 154 of their 265 points inside the 20-yard line.
•    Additionally, SEMO has not turned the ball over in the red zone in 20 of its last 23 games dating back to last season.

Leading Tackler
•    Safety Landon Sylvie leads the Redhawks with 86 tackles this season.
•    Sylvie became the first Redhawk to reach double-digit tackles when he posted a career-high 12 at Arkansas State (Aug. 30).
•    He followed that up with eight tackles the following week vs. North Alabama (Sept. 6), nine at #1 North Dakota State (Sept. 13), nine vs. #11 Southern Illinois (Sept. 20), 11 at UT Martin (Sept. 27), seven vs. Tennessee State (Oct. 11), five vs. Eastern Illinois (Oct. 18), nine at Tennessee Tech (Oct. 25), six vs. Charleston Southern (Nov. 1), two at Gardner-Webb (Nov. 8) and eight at Western Illinois (Nov. 15).
•    Sylvie was SEMO's leading tackler in seven games this season.
•    He ranks fifth in the OVC-Big South in tackles.

Kicking Strong
•    Kicker Justin Keller is Southeast Missouri's top scorer with 71 points.
•    Keller, a transfer from Coastal Carolina, is in his first season as the Redhawks starting kicker.
•    He scored a season-best 12 points on 3-of-3 field goals and 3-of-3 extra points vs. North Alabama (Sept. 6).
•    For the season, he is 13-of-17 on field goals and a perfect 32-of-32 on PATs.
•    Keller is fourth in the OVC-Big South in field goals made (13), second in field goal percentage (76.5), third in scoring (kick) (6.3 ppg) and tied for first in PAT kicking percentage (1.00).

About Lindenwood
•    Lindenwood comes to Cape Girardeau after getting a home win over Eastern Illinois last weekend.
•    The Lions are third in the OVC-Big South in scoring with 24.3 points per game.
•    Nate Glantz is second in the league with 223.9 passing yards per game.
•    Glantz also has a OVC-Big South high 2,463 passing yards.