Lindenwood stuns No. 6 Southeast Missouri State in historic upset

SEMO running back Darrell Smith carries the ball against Lindenwood on Saturday, Nov. 9, in St. Charles. 

Tony Capobianco ~ tcapobianco@semoball.com

ST. CHARLES — Third time was the charm for Lindenwood.

The Lions saluted their seniors and shocked the FCS world with a shocking upset win over No. 6 Southeast Missouri State 24-12 on a soaked Saturday afternoon in St. Charles.

It was the first time the Lions took home the Game Ball Brawl trophy since moving to Division I and establishing the Big South-OVC rivalry with SEMO. The Redhawks have won the past two meetings by double-digits.

"We've said all along it's not a rival until we win one," Lindenwood head coach Jed Stugart said.

Despite playing on turf, the SEMO offense was stuck in the mud, only able to settle for two field goals in the first half.

Lindenwood meanwhile, took a 14-6 halftime lead on a 20-yard touchdown pass from Nate Glantz to Drew Krobath and a three-yard pass to Jeff Caldwell.

The Lions added to their lead in the third quarter on a 27-yard quarterback run from Glantz to go up 21-6.

The Redhawks showed life late in the third quarter. McCoy Casey forced a fumble on a strip sack, and Mali Watson recovered to put the SEMO offense in favorable position. Walton finished the game with 14 tackles.

DeLaurent threw a 34-yard pass to Tristian Smith on the very next play to set up the Redhawks’ only touchdown in the game to pull with 21-12 with five minutes remaining in the third quarter.

DeLaurent completed 16 of 37 passes for 174 yards and an interception. The Big South-OVC leader with 2,908 passing yards didn’t throw for a touchdown for the first time all season.

Smith led the SEMO receivers with 64 yards on seven receptions. Drops from receivers plagued the Redhawks throughout the game, but also the Lindenwood defense had the Lions’ share of the problem.

"You just didn't see open receivers today," Stugart said. "They did an amazing job. Nobody got behind us. Our guys really trusted the scheme."

Lindenwood rounded out the scoring in the fourth quarter with a 32-yard field goal from Logan Seibert to make it a 24-12 game.

Glantz completed 13 of 20 passes for 183 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. He also ran for 38 yards and a score.

Lindenwood running back Steve Hall rushed for 91 yards on 18 carries, which is the most SEMO has allowed in two months.

“We felt confident we could run the ball,” Stugart said. “That’s been a bit of strength for us, and I think a lot of this is a mindset. I got to give our offensive line a lot of credit because they were playing a lot of the bear front today. It’s hard to run against.”

Return of the backs

The Redhawks returned running backs Darrell Smith and Peyton Brown from injury but the ground game overall only mustered 60 yards, including a three-yard rushing touchdown by quarterback Paxton DeLaurent in the third quarter.

Smith rushed for 37 yards in nine carries and caught two more passes for 37 yards. Include the two kick returns for 21 yards and he had 95 total yards, something SEMO head coach Tom Matukewicz saw as a good sign for the future.

"Darrell came back. I really though he had a nice day, ran the ball well, kind of gave us a spark," Matukewicz said. "We'll continue to get him better and ready for next week."

"Mr. Consistent"

The SEMO defense was led by senior linebacker Bryce Norman, who had 19 tackles and two sacks. Matukewicz has long nicknamed him "Mr. SEMO," but now there's a new one: Mr. Consistant."

Norman currently leads the conference with 107 tackles and 5.5 sacks. He reminded Stugart why he tried to recruit the former Jackson Indian to Lindenwood during its DII era.

"I really respect him as a football player," Stugart said. "He's that type of player that you really respect. He's kind of a throwback type linebacker."

SEMO’s Khalani Riddick and Lindenwood’s Eric Gant each had an interception.

"I liked a lot of our defense," Matukewicz said. "But at the end of the day, we gave up some big plays, we had some unfortunate penalties, we'll see what the film looks like but we got to find ways to play smarter. That's a concern. Defensively I thought we had some nice stops. Just not enough to come up with a win."

What's next

The Redhawks return to Houck Field on Saturday, Nov. 16 to face Western Illinois. SEMO holds the tiebreaker over Tennessee Martin, who won against Charleston Southern, for first place in the conference.

SEMO's upcoming game will also be the last regular season home game for the senior class that has brought a conference championship to Cape Girardeau in 2022 and hopes to do the same this year.

"These seniors have done a lot for me, a lot for our program, a lot for our school," Matukewicz said, "and we got to send them out with a win."

Lindenwood (5-6, 4-3) will celebrate the biggest win in school history during an upcoming bye week and will close out the season at UT Martin on Nov. 23.