Sept. 8, 2001

Stats

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Last season Southeast Missouri let Southern Illinois gain a 31-0 advantage before making a miraculous comeback to win the game. This season Coach Tim Billings' squad only let the Salukis gain a 3-0 advantage before storming back for 24 unanswered points in the 24-5 victory.

Southeast (1-1) got an MVP performance from redshirt freshman Jeromy McDowell, who set a school record for passing yards in a game with 391 yards. McDowell, who only had 74 yards passing at halftime, finished his second collegiate game 19-42 and threw three touchdown passes. Collectively, as a team, Southeast ended up with 418 yards passing, also a single game team record. The extra 27 yards came from a Bobby Brune pass in the third quarter when McDowell had to leave the game briefly with an injury.

Southern Illinois (0-1) gained the upper hand first after a blocked punt set up a Scott Everhart 37-yard field goal with 10:22 remaining in the second quarter. SIU had other chances, but two missed field goals, an interception and a fumble in the first half cost the Salukis scoring opportunities.

Southeast got on the board first when freshman Derek Kutz kicked the longest field goal in his short Indian career, a 41-yard blast that tied the score at 3-3 with 7:11 remaining in the second quarter. The field goal was set up by a McDowell 50-yard strike by Adrian Sanders earlier in the drive.

The Indians would waste no time in the third quarter scoring a mere 1:01 into the second frame. McDowell found junior Tarik Simpson on a 67-yard scoring strike to put Southeast up 10-3 early in the third.

SIU had a great chance to tie the game up marching down the field on a 12 play, 81-yard drive. Unfortunately for the Salukis, a fourth down conversion failed and the Indians took over on downs. Southeast made the most of the SIU failure, as McDowell hooked up with Adrian Sanders on an 82-yard passing play that would set up a McDowell to Simpson 15-yard touchdown strike with 6:55 remaining in the third.

Southeast would score one final time in the fourth quarter when McDowell found Willie Ponder on a 47-yard touchdown completion to put Southeast up 24-3 and helped McDowell break the school passing record in the process.

Southeast would later take a team safety when punting deep in their endzone, to give SIU their only other points of the game.

McDowell's spectacular passing game was spread around to three different receivers. Ponder caught seven balls for 121 yards, Sanders had six catches for a game-high 190 yards receiving and Simpson had five catches for 104 yards.

Southern Illinois controlled the rushing game, running for 249 total yards, with Tom Koutsos gaining a game-high 114 yards. Southeast was held to 30 total rushing yards.

But it was Southeast controlling the passing attack with the school record 418 yards compared to 134 for SIU.

The previous school record for passing yards was held by Jeff Brown, who sets the record on November 16, 1985 when he threw for 372 yards against Northeast Missouri (Truman State).