Cape Girardeau, MO— The Eastern defense gave up two big plays and it resulted in two touchdowns. Southeast Missouri took advantage of miscues on defense by the Panthers and penalties to lead them to a 21-14 win Saturday at Houck Stadium.

The Redhawks scored quickly in the first quarter on their first drive after Eastern’s ended with a punt. With less than three minutes later SEMO added 7 more on a 62-yard pass from Jesse Hosket to Adrian Davis on the first play of the drive.

Eastern had a score in the first quarter off an 18-yard run by redshirt junior running back Christopher Anderson and made it 14-7 with 4:26 left in the quarter.

The Panthers had the game tied at 14 briefly after a backward pass by Hosket was scooped up by redshirt senior safety Pono Choy and ran 22 yards into the end zone.

But the defense for the Panthers fell flat on the SEMO drive, leaving Marquette Murdock wide open for an easy 45-yard score. The play was almost identical to the 62-yard touchdown play in the first quarter.

Eastern struggled to sustain drives on offense and SEMO forced Eastern to punt six times. 

The Panthers and Redhawks were almost even with total yards, but in the end the two big plays hurt Eastern. The Panthers finished with 316 and SEMO put up 340 yards on Eastern.

Eastern went for it with just under 6 minutes left in the game, but turned it over on downs and SEMO took over and moved it down the field and took a knee.

Sean Hastings can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]