Gameday blog: Southeast at Austin Peay

The Southeast Missouri State football team shut out Austin Peay in the second half to pick up its first road win of the season.

The Redhawks kept APSU winless on the season with a 44-15 defeat of the Govs.

Paul McRoberts broke the school's all-time receiving touchdown record with 7 minutes, 34 seconds left in the third with a 2-yard touchdown catch. It was the 27th of his career and put the Redhawks up 31-15.

With 7:12 remaining junior linebacker Roper Garrett sacked Trey Taylor and forced a fumble that sophomore linebacker Chad Meredith recovered and returned 1 yard for the score. The PAT was blocked to make it 37-15 Southeast.

Will Young scored with 2:03 left on a 5-yard run for the final score.

Southeast improved to 4-5 and 2-2 in the Ohio Valley Conference. It's the first time the Redhawks have won two in a row this season.

The Southeast Missouri State football team leads Austin Peay 24-15 at halftime in Clarksville, Tennessee.

The Govs started the game with a 14-play, 65-yard drive that ended with a 13-yard touchdown pass to tight end James Coleman with 8 minutes, 50 seconds left in the quarter. The PAT was no good to put APSU up 6-0.

Both teams went three-and-out on their next drives.

Southeast got on the board when quarterback Dante Vandeven ran it in from 4 yards out to cap a penalty-riddled, 14-play, 81-yard drive. The Redhawks led 7-6 at the end of the first quarter.

APSU scored on a 1-yard Kendall Morris run 3:18 into the second quarter, but quarterback Timarious Mitchell's 2-point conversion pass fell incomplete to make it 12-7 Govs.

Tyler McLemore put Southeast ahead for good in the first half when he caught a pass near the Redhawks' sideline, stayed in bounds and ran it in for the 25-yard score that made it 14-12 with 8:41 left in the half.

APSU went three and out on the ensuing drive. The Redhawks and Vandeven moved it down to the 9 before QB Tay Bender came in and picked up a first down on third-and-3 and then punched it in from 3 to make it 21-12 with 3:49 left in the half.

The Govs got it to the Southeast 2 five plays into the next drive with back to back passes to Jared Beard of 16 and 66 yards.

A 1-yard loss and two incomplete passes forced APSU to settle for a 20-yard field goal by Logan Birchfield that cut it to 21-15 with 54.1 seconds left in the half.

Southeast answered with a 44-yard field goal by Ryan McCrum to close out the half.

Vandeven completed 11 of 18 passes for 124 yards. Paul McRoberts had 53 yards receiving on six catches.

Tremane McCullough has 100 yards rushing on 12 carries, including a 51-yard run.

APSU QB Timarious Mitchell completed 8 of 19 passes for 141 yards. Kendall Morris leads the Govs with 41 yards rushing on nine carries.

Roper Garrett has a game-high seven tackles for the Redhawks.

The Southeast Missouri State football team faces winless Austin Peay on Saturday in the first of the Redhawks' final two chances to pick up a road win this season. Kickoff is set for 4 p.m.

Erin Unerstall will provide updates from Governors Stadium in Clarksville, Tennessee. You can follow along on Twitter @semoballErin for live updates throughout the game and you don't have to have a Twitter account to see the posts.

The Govs last won a game on Oct. 18, 2014, when they defeated Murray State 20-13 to snap an 18-game losing streak. A preview of the Redhawks' game against APSU can be found here.

The Redhawks are back to .500 in conference fter a 38-17 victory over Tennessee Tech last week that featured a stretch of 5 minutes, 18 seconds in the third quarter in which Southeast scored 17 points on special teams. The Redhawks improved to 3-5 and 2-2 in the OVC with the victory.

A notebook on the Redhawks' extra motivation from the team's Pink Up game and more can be found here.

A photo gallery from the game can be viewed here.

Running back Tremane McCullough had an 81-yard touchdown run against TTU, which helped him earn OVC Newcomer of the Week honors for the second time this season.

Southeast coach Tom Matukewicz stressed a need for continued improvement on offense, which is something he was disappointed in vs. TTU. Read more about how he was trying to make that happen in practice, as well as his thoughts on TTU receiver-turned-quarterback Brock McCoin and more in Erin's notebook from practice this week.