Football takes down SEMO to end regular season

Saturday, November 21

Cape Girardeau, Mo.

1:00 PM

Southern Illinois University

10-1

Southeast Missouri

2-9

Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final F
Southern Illinois	7	14	14	7	42
Southeast Missouri	0	0	17	7	24

11/21/2009 | 12:00:00 | Football

Box Score

By Jason Clay
www.SIUSalukis.com

Nov. 21, 2009

Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Redshirt freshman quarterback Paul McIntosh accounted for four touchdowns and senior running back Deji Karim ran for 155 yards as No. 1 Southern Illinois closed out its 2009 regular season with a 42-24 win at Southeast Missouri State, Saturday in Houck Stadium.

The Salukis (10-1) head into the playoffs with a 10-game winning streak. SIU will learn Sunday who they will face in the opening round, as the NCAA Selection Show airs live on ESPNews at 2 p.m. CT.

Head coach Dale Lennon said afterwards that he thought his team has a good chance to receive one of the four seeds in the playoffs and earn a home game in the opening round.

"Any time a team has 10 wins and captures the Missouri Valley Football Conference outright, that is making a great case for yourself," Lennon said. "It's good that we will control our own destiny from here on out.

"The big thing from today is we got the win and you got to give Southeast Missouri State a lot of credit. They don't have the best record, but they've played everyone tough all year and that's what they did to us today."

McIntosh ran for 101 yards on 13 carries and threw for 181 yards with one touchdown. He scored three rushing TDs as he registered just the 11th 100-yard rushing game by a quarterback in school history.

The Salukis had 294 yards rushing the ball in the game and 475 yards of total offense. Karim picked up his 155 yards on 16 carries and had two touchdown runs, including a 70-yarder. He averaged 9.7 yards per carry Saturday and had 218 all-purpose yards.

Southeast Missouri State (2-9) put up a fight in its final game of the season. The Redhawks racked up 344 yards of total offense and were led by quarterback Matt Scheible who had 155 yards passing with two touchdowns.

Senior linebacker Brandin Jordan led the SIU defense with 11 tackles and he had one of two Saluki sacks. SIU's streak of 11-straight games with at least one interception came to an end Saturday, as the Saluki defense did not record a single turnover for the first time in the last 20 games.

Southern Illinois marched right down the field to go up 7-0 on the games opening drive. McIntosh capped off the nine-play, 63-yard drive with a 15-yard touchdown run just three minutes into the game.

The Redhawks controlled the ball for the majority of the first and second quarters, but McIntosh drove the Salukis down for their second touchdown late in the second quarter.

He hit Matt Guinn for a 49-yard pass down the sideline before Karim scored his 15th rushing touchdown of the season. That came on a 10-yard dive to put SIU up 14-0 at 3:10.

The Saluki defense got a quick stop, giving McIntosh the opportunity to work his magic once again. This time he drove the Salukis down 57 yards in just over a minute and hit Bryce Morris for a 10-yard touchdown pass with 42 seconds left in the half.

McIntosh threw for 147 yards and ran for 69 as he guided the Dawgs to the 21-0 lead after two quarters.

After a fairly docile first half, the fireworks were launched in the third quarter where the two teams combined to score 31 points.

Southeast Missouri State finally got on the scoreboard five minutes into the stanza with a 38-yard Curtis Huge field goal.

SIU's Richard White set the Salukis up with great field position on the ensuing kickoff. He returned it 59-yards down to the Redhawk 25-yard line and the Dawgs scored five plays later. McIntosh's second rushing touchdown of the game came from two-yards out and gave Southern Illinois a 28-3 lead.

Two touchdowns were then scored in the next minute and 56 seconds. Southeast Missouri State got its first touchdown of the game when Scheible faked a reverse and hit a wide-open Miles Edwards for a 54-yard touchdown pass.

Karim answered for the Salukis with a 70-yard touchdown run on SIU's first offensive play after the kickoff. For Karim, a Walter Payton Award Candidate, it was his fourth touchdown run on the year of 70 yards or more.

Scheible ended the wacky third quarter with his second touchdown pass. He found Edwards once again in the end zone, this time on a five-yard pass after a 61-yard drive. The score cut SIU's lead down to 35-17 after three quarters.

SIU turned the ball over on its first two drives of the fourth quarter and the second one was costly. William Castro picked off a McIntosh on a wide receiver screen pass and returned it 14 yards for a touchdown, pulling the Redhawks within 11 with 9:22 to play.

McIntosh and Karim brushed off previous mishaps and put together their sixth touchdown drive of the game. A couple of long runs from both of them led to McIntosh's third rushing touchdown at 7:26.

That would be the end of the scoring Saturday, as the Salukis closed out the game with their 10th-straight victory.