Nov. 10, 2001

Final Stats

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - The Southeast Missouri State Indian football team snapped three consecutive seasons of 3-8 records by beating Quincy 38-6 to close the season with four victories. The team also set an all-time record for total yards in a game, with 638 total yards.

Senior quarterback Bobby Brune had closed his Southeast career in style, completing 10-14 passes for 201 yards and a touchdown. The 201 yards pushed him to 4,124 yards for his career, good enough for fifth place all-time at Southeast. In the process, Brune knocked his own father, Greg Brune out of that fifth place position. Greg passed for 4,109 in his career from 1965-67.

After a scoreless first quarter, Southeast (4-7) started the scoring when freshman Derek Kutz kicked a 21-yard field goal, the seventh of his rookie campaign, to put Southeast up 3-0. The field goal was set up after Southeast blocked a Quincy field goal and took over on their own one-yard line. On the next play, freshman quarterback Jeromy McDowell hit Adrian Sanders for a 93-yard strike that put the ball deep into the Quincy territory at the six-yard line. The pass play was the second longest in Southeast history (only outdone by a 94-yard catch by David Stewart in 1983), and the longest in the Ohio Valley Conference this season.

On the next Quincy possession, Southeast defensive back Demar Winston picked off a pass deep into Southeast territory as Quincy was marching for a touchdown. The next Indian possession was capped by a Curtis Cooper nine-yard touchdown run. On the drive that went 91 yards in eight plays, Cooper carried the ball for 70 of those yards.

Following a Quincy failed fake punt, Southeast took over on downs and Southeast would once again capitalize. The drive was capped when Cooper took a handoff and through a halfback option pass to Willie Ponder for a 25-yard touchdown, which put Southeast up 17-0.

For the game, Cooper ended up with 129 yards, most of which came in the first quarter. For the season, Cooper ended up with 1,198 yards, the second most in a single season at Southeast Missouri, trailing only Kelvin "Earthquake" Anderson who had 1,371 yards in 1992.

Iven Brown would add a 45-yard touchdown run to cap the first half scoring at 24-0 in favor of Southeast.

Southeast would add the first 14 points of the second half, thanks to a Brune seven-yard touchdown run and a Brune one-yard pass to tight end Chuck McElroy.

Quincy would finally get on the board with 5:33 remaining in the game, when Adrian Dixon pulled in a 28-yard touchdown pass from Craig Harmon to give Quincy its only score of the game.

McDowell threw for 123 yards on the night for Southeast pushing his single season total to 2,051, a freshman record. Tonight's performance moved him into fourth place in a single season as he passed Greg Brune's mark of 1,959 in 1966.

The 638 total yards broke the old school record of 588 yards set against Tennessee-Martin on September 20, 1986.

Ponder, the junior receiver, failed in his bid to obtain all the Southeast single season receiving records. He finished the season with 1,090 yards, becoming only the second Indian to ever go over 1,000 yards in a year. He ended up only 26 yards short of the single season record of 1,116 set by Farron Haley in 1989. Ponder also caught four passes on the evening to move to 70 on the season, which ranks third on the all-time Southeast single season list.