Gameday blog: Southern Illinois at Southeast

Southeast Missouri State kicker Ryan McCrum made a 42-yard field goal with 5.6 seconds remaining to lift the Redhawks to a 27-24 win over Southern Illinois.

McCrum had missed three field goals previously in the game.

The Redhawks trailed 21-17 at halftime 24-17 after a 46-yard field goal by Austin Johnson with 12:45 left in the third.

Redhawks receiver Paul McRoberts tied it at 24-24 with 2:27 left in the third on a 13-yard pass from Tay Bender.

Complete coverage of the game will be on semoball.com later tonight.

The Southeast Missouri State football team trails Southern Illinois 21-17 at halftime of its home opener at Houck Stadium.

The Salukis took their first lead of the half with 29 seconds remaining when quarterback Mark Iannotti completed a pass to Darrell James in the end zone from 18 yards out.

The Redhawks took a 3-0 lead on a 39-yard field goal 2 minutes, 13 seconds into the game.

Cornerback Michael Ford made it 10-0 with 8:56 left in the quarter when he intercepted an Iannotti pass on the first play of an SIU drive and returned it 21 yards for a touchdown.

The Salukis answered with a 10-play, 86-yard drive that was capped with an 18-yard touchdown pass to Daquan Isom with 5:17 left in the first that cut Southeast's lead to 10-7.

Southeast linebacker Chad Meredith was ejected from the game earlier in that drive for targeting.

The Redhawks were forced to punt on their next drive, but safety Eriq Moore recovered a fumble by Connor Iwema on the first play of the ensuing drive returned it 42 yards for a score to extend the Southeast lead to 17-7 with 2:50 to go in the first.

SIU, which ended the first quarter on the Southeast 5, needed just 32 seconds in the second quarter to score on a 3-yard run by Iannotti that pulled the Salukis within 17-14.

McCrum missed two field goals in the first half -- a 42-yard attempt with 9:02 left in the first and a 38-yard attempt with 1:00 left in the half.

Southeast quarterback Tay Bender completed 6 of 11 passes for 52 yards and rushed for 8 yards on nine carries.

Running back DeMichael Jackson had 96 yards rushing on 16 carries.

Iannotti completed 19 of 22 passes for 193 yards with two interceptions. He rushed for 32 yards.

The Southeast Missouri State football team hosts regional rival Southern Illinois in its home opener today. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. from Houck Stadium.

Erin Unerstall and Rachel Crader will provide updates from the game.

You can follow along on Twitter @semoballErin or @semoballRachel for live updates throughout the game and you don't have to have a Twitter account to see their posts.

Check out a preview of the game and learn about the Salukis' 48-47 loss to Indiana here.

The Redhawks (0-1) are coming off a 34-3 loss to Missouri and focused on cleaning up some of their penalties from Week 1 in practice this week.

You can read about the season opener, and Southeast's impressive defensive performance, here.

A notebook from the game, with information on the Redhawks' blocked punt returned for a touchdown and sophomore linebacker Kendall Donnerson's ejection, can be found here.

Rachel's column on Southeast's "conservative" offense against the Tigers is available here.