Racers Upend #16 SEMO On The Road

Sunday, March 7

Cape Girardeau, Mo.

2 p.m.

Murray State

2-0 , 2-0

Southeast Missouri

1-2 , 1-1

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Murray State

Southeast Missouri

Photo by: Dave Winder-Murray State Athletics

Photo by: Dave Winder-Murray State Athletics

Photo by: Dave Winder-Murray State Athletics

Photo by: Dave Winder-Murray State Athletics

Photo by: Dave Winder-Murray State Athletics

3/7/2021 11:17:00 PM | Football

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Defense limits Redhawks to 185 yards, forces three turnovers

Murray State football head coach Dean Hood only had to wait two games into his tenure to find a signature win, as his Racers upset 16^th-ranked Southeast Missouri, 24-21, Sunday afternoon at Houck Stadium in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. With the win, the Racers are off to a 2-0 start for the first time since 1998.

The Redhawks got things started on the opening drive when they went 81 yards on nine plays, capped by a Zion Custis 5-yard rush, to give Southeast Missouri an early 7-0 lead. On the ensuing Murray State drive, the Racers scored on a 25-yard pass from Preston Rice to Rodney Castille ending a quick four-play, 65-yard drive and tying the game at seven.

On the next SEMO drive, the Redhawks had a first-and-10 on their own 37 when a bad snap got away from quarterback Andrew Bunch and after bouncing between several Redhawks and Racers, ended up being recovered by SEMO on their own 12-yard line. On the next play, a second-and-35, Bunch threw the ball directly to the Racers' Marcis Floyd who returned the ball 22 yards for a pick six that put his team up, 14-7, just three drives into the game

Murray State would go on to add a 34-yard field goal by Aaron Baum later in the quarter to extend the lead to 17-7 at the end of the first. After the two teams combined for 24 points in the first quarter, neither team scored in the second or third quarters.

Finally, after a 33:37 scoring drought by both teams, the Redhawks took advantage of a bad punt by the Racers and went 30 yards in six plays to cut the deficit to three. Custis scored his second touchdown of the game on the drive, this time punching it in from the 1.

On the very next drive, SEMO's Shabari Davis picked off Rice and returned the ball 33 yards for a pick six of his own to give his team a 21-17 lead with 11:47 to play. However, amidst the celebration SEMO was flagged for two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, which would be enforced on the ensuing kickoff. Kicking off from his own 10-yard line, Adam Krause booted the ball 53 yards, which was then returned 16 yards by Malik Honeycutt giving the Racers the opportunity to start their drive at their own 49.

On the second play of that next drive, LaMartez Brooks gave Murray State a much needed boost when he broke off a 30-yard run to the SEMO 19-yard line. After a pair of rushes and a pair of passes, Rice finished the drive off himself with a 3-yard run to put Murray State back on top, 24-21, with 7:57 to go in the game.

Following the touchdown, the Racer defense forced a three-and-out from the Redhawks that netted negative-six yards. On the next MSU drive, the Racers went 37 yards and ate up 6:00 of clock time, before eventually stalling on a fourth-and-7 at the SEMO 27. With just 22 seconds left, Bunch threw two incomplete passes before being intercepted by Floyd again as time expired.

For the second consecutive game, the Racer defense held its opponent to under 200 total yards, 185 on Sunday, and produced three takeaways. Floyd played a big part of that defensive performance, finishing the day with two interceptions, six tackles including four solo and a touchdown. Eric Samuta led the Racers in tackles on the day with nine including five solo, in addition to a team-high 1.5 tackles-for-loss.

Offensively, Damonta Witherspoon led a rushing attack that tallied 195 total yards of his own with 108 on 22 carries. The win was the first in five tries for the Racers at Houck Stadium, with the last coming in 2011, and is the first road win over a ranked team since 2017.

Murray State will look to move to 3-0 next Sunday when it travels to Tennessee Tech to tangle with Golden Eagles at 1:30 p.m. on ESPN+ and Froggy 103.7 FM.