Southeast falls to defending OVC champion Eastern Illinois

Final: Eastern Illinois 52, Southeast 13

Eastern Illinois handed the Southeast Missouri State football team its first home loss of the season.

The two-time defending conference champion Panthers defeated the Redhawks 52-13.

Southeast was shutout in the second half after trailing 24-13 at halftime.

Southeast falls to 4-4 on the season and 2-2 in the OVC.

Check semoball.com later for complete game coverage.

Halftime: Eastern Illinois 24, Southeast 13

The Southeast Missouri State football team trails two-time defending Ohio Valley Conference 24-13 at halftime at Houck Stadium.

The Panthers led 7-6 at the end of the first quarter. They scored on a 50-yard touchdown pass to Adam Drake with 10 minutes, 37 seconds remaining in the first.

Southeast's next drive ended with a 51-yard field goal by Ryan McCrum to make it 7-3.

McCrum made a 39-yard field goal with 36.2 seconds left in the opening quarter to pull within a point.

EIU quarterback Jalen Whitlow made it 14-6 with a 3-yard touchdown run with 10:21 left in the half, but the Redhawks trimmed the Panthers' lead back to one with a 6-yard pass to Spencer Davis four minutes later.

Whitlow scored on a 13-yard run with 2:14 remaining in the half to make it 21-13 and Nick Bruno made a 45-yard field goal with 52 seconds before half.

The Redhawks moved it to the Panthers' 29-yard line on the next drive after a 30-yard pass to Peter Lloyd, but a pass intended for Adrian Davis was intercepted at the 10 to close out the half.

The Southeast Missouri State football will face two-time defending OVC champion Eastern Illinois at 1 p.m. this afternoon.

Eastern Illinois enters 1-5 overall and 1-1 in conference, but the Panthers have played a top-quality schedule, and all of their losses have been to either ranked (at the time or later) FCS teams or FBS teams.

One focus for the Redhawks, which at Murray State last week, has been eliminating big plays, so we'll keep an eye on that today.

We'll also be keeping an eye on quarterback Kyle Snyder, who was roughed up in last week's loss.

In other injury news, wide receiver Paul McRoberts and defensive end Selwyn Carrol, who both have a broken foot, are both out of their casts and off crutches. Both of them have a short walking boot on and are moving up and down the sideline during pregame warmups.

Southeast has made a depth-chart change before this game as well. Caruthersville grad Peter Lloyd is now listed as the No. 1 kick returner ahead of veteran returner Spencer Davis. Davis is still listed as the No. 1 punt returner. (UPDATE: Just spotted Carrol again and he had crutches. Might have seen the wrong person earlier or he may have grabbed crutches. McRoberts still walking around without aid.)

Offensive lineman Garret Baker is back on the depth chart as well. He dressed out last week but did not play due to injury. Linebacker Wisler Ymonice, who also missed last week with an injury. Both Baker and Ymonice went through warmups last week but did not play, so we'll have to wait until game time to know for sure about their status.

We'll update this blog throughout the game. As always, follow Erin Unerstall @semoballErin or Rachel Crader @semoballRachel on Twitter for updates throughout the game.