Racers Battle Salukis But Fall Short on Homecoming

Saturday, November 1

Murray, Ky.

4 p.m.

Murray State

0-9 , 0-5

Southern Illinois

6-3 , 3-2

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Southern Ill.

Murray St.

Photo by: Dave Winder-Murray State Athletics

11/1/2025 6:01:00 PM | Football

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The Murray State Racers dropped a 27-7 final to the No. 16 ranked Southern Illinois Salukis on homecoming day at Roy Stewart Stadium in Murray, Ky.

The Racers (0-9,) fell to 0-5 in the Missouri Valley Football Conference as they host they hit the road next week for Cedar Falls and a game at Northern Iowa.

Trying to get a foothold against the Salukis, the Racers were able to move the ball against the Salukis, but were halted on a fourth down & one play with 4:50 in the first quarter and were intercepted in red zone three minutes into the second quarter.

Even with two drives stopped, the Racers were in the game with SIU trailing 17-0, before MSU reached pay dirt with 27 seconds in the first half on a 5-yard throw from Ogle to JK Carter to make it a 17-7 game at the halftime intermission.

MSU drove to the SIU 39 in the early third quarter, but were stopped and SIU went in front 27-7 with 12 minutes left in the game.

GAME NOTES

Murray State captains today were (12) Lucas Desjardins (Gr., Houston, Texas), (9) Dylan Rowsey (Jr., Rienzi, Miss.) and (61) AJ Shadid (Fr., Norman, Okla.).
The Salukis won the coin toss and elected to take the ball.
Jawaun Northington's 34-yard run with 4:47 left in the third quarter was the longest of the season for the Racers.
The Racers' previous best was a 24-yard run twice this season for Tyrell Campbell at Youngstown St. (10-25-2025) and Jordan Washington vs Illinois St. (10-11-2025).
Jawaun Northington rushed 16 times today for 81 yards to lead the Racers.
Northington has 407 yards this season on the ground in 104 carries for a 3.9 yards per carry average.
In his MSU career, Northington has 1,615 yards on 379 attempts for an average 4.3 yards per carry with 12 touchdowns.
MSU's 178 yards rushing today vs SIU is their best this season in five MVFC games, topping their previous best of 170 vs Illinois State (10-11-25).
MSU's best all-time rushing game in the MVFC is 268 yards at North Dakota (09-28-24).
Dylan Rowsey had 15 tackles today to mark his seventh game in nine with 10 or more tackles.
Rowsey has 111 tackles overall to lead the MVFC with 12.33 per game and has a lead of 11 over second place Kimal Clark of Indiana State at 100.
MSU Hall of Famer, Nathan Williams, holds the MSU single season record with 179 tackles in the 2008 season.
Rowsey breaks into the single-season top-10 at MSU if he can reach 133.
MSU's Danny Amato (1988), Alfred Caldwell (1974) and Sam Tandy (1969) all had 133 tackles in a season.
Today's game marked a fifth-straight week of the Racers taking on a FCS Top-25 team in the MVFC, the top league in all of FCS football.
South Dakota was No. 21 (Oct. 4) when they met the Racers, Illinois State was No. 10 (Oct. 11), South Dakota State was No. 2 and Youngstown State was No. 22 last week.
The Racers trail their all-time series 10-12-2 with the Salukis and are 0-3 in the MVFC.
Homecoming day featured the retiring of the No. 26 that was worn by Danny Lee Johnson from 1977-81 where was the 1978 OVC Player of the Year and named All-America. Today, Johnson's career still stands as he is MSU's second all-time leading rusher with 2,522 yards.

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