CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – Southeast Missouri (1-1) rattled off 30-straight points en route to a 30-21 home-opening win over North Alabama (0-2) Saturday night at Houck Field.
SEMO, which trailed 7-0 with 43 seconds left in the first quarter, answered by scoring the next 30 points and UNA never recovered.
The Lions scored the game's first points on a fourth-down 1-yard touchdown plunge by quarterback Ari Patu.
SEMO's defense came up with a nice stop on fourth down when
Landon Sylvie tackled Jayvian Allen at the Redhawks 42-yard line.
Seven plays later,
Justin Keller kicked a 29-yard field goal to cut UNA's lead to 7-3 with 6:17 left in the second quarter.
The Redhawks took their first lead of the night on a 3-yard run by
Jax Leatherwood. Leatherwood's first rushing touchdown of the season finished off an 8-play, 78-yard drive putting SEMO ahead, 10-7, at the 2:12 mark.
Keller connected once more, this time from 27 yards out as time expired to give SEMO a 13-7 advantage at the half.
A 47-yard kickoff return by
Cole Ruble gave SEMO nice field position at its 47-yard line to start the second stanza. The Redhawks then tacked on three more points on a season-long 48-yard field goal by Keller widening their lead to 16-7 with 13:02 to go in the third quarter.
Following another fourth-down stop by SEMO's defense, the Redhawks struck again when Leatherwood threw a 55-yard touchdown pass to
Cam Pedro. Pedro gained 43 of those yards after the catch to push SEMO's lead to 23-7 with 4:15 left.
Tight end
Andrew Civey hauled in his first career touchdown reception on an 8-yard toss by Leatherwood to widen the Redhawks margin to 30-7 at the 5:33 mark in the fourth quarter.
UNA did score a pair of touchdowns in the last four minutes of the game, but its late push fell short.
Leatherwood completed 21-of-33 passes for 225 yards and two touchdowns.
Payton Brown paved the way on the ground with 16 carries for 81 yards and Pedro caught four passes for 82 yards. Pedro went over 1,000 receiving yards in his career.
Defensively, SEMO stopped UNA three times on fourth down. For the second-straight game,
Landon Sylvie led the Redhawks, this time with eight tackles.
Keller scored 11 points on three field goals and two extra points.
SEMO returns to action when it travels to #1 North Dakota State on Sept. 13.
