Just The Facts
The Murray State football team dropped its final game of the season, 21-10, to Southeast Missouri Saturday at Houck Stadium in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. With the loss, the Racers finish the season at 3-8 overall and 2-5 in the Ohio Valley Conference.
How It Happened
Southeast Missouri scored twice in the opening stanza of the game and never looked back, as the Redhawk defense never allowed the Racer offense to find a scoring rhythm. Murray State did score in the second half on a career-long 52-yard field goal by Gabriel Vicente and 13-yard pass from Cameron Birse to L.J. Gainey, but it was not enough, as SEMO held on for the 21-10 win.
About The Redhawks
Despite being outgained on the day by Murray State, 245-185, SEMO’s three trips to the end zone proved to be enough to give the Redhawks the win. Marquis Terry rushed for two of those touchdowns, on top of his game-high 92 yards, while Cameron Sanders ran for the other. Defensively, Zach Hall and Justin Swift led the Redhawks with 10 tackles each, in addition to Swift’s 2.5 sacks, 3.0 tackles-for-loss, one pass breakup and one quarterback hurry.
Pulling Double Duty
Redshirt senior D’Montre Wade accomplished a rare feat Saturday by starting on both offense and defense for the Racers. The Senior Bowl-bound defensive back finished his final game in blue and gold with four tackles and one pass breakup and while he did not record any offensive stats he was targeted on Shuler Bentley’s first pass of the game.
No Beginner’s Luck
Junior kicker Gabriel Vicente proved throughout the season that despite it being his first year of football, he was a legitimate offensive force by leading the Racers in scoring with 65 points. Vicente scored in every game on the season with field goals in 10 of 11 games and extra points in 11 of 11 games or every game in which he had an attempt in the category. He finished the year at 14-for-18 on field goals and 23-of-24 on extra points.
Club 2K
Jordon Gandy became just the eighth member of MSU’s 2,000 receiving yards club Saturday in his final game at Murray State. The senior caught 11 passes for 132 yards in the game to give him 2,065 for his career, placing him eighth on the all-time yardage list. The game also marked Gandy’s third 100-plus yard game of the season and eighth of his career placing him third all-time on that list. Despite not having a touchdown Saturday, Gandy did finish with 10 on the season to give him 23 for his career making him third all-time in that category as well.
Going Out With A Bang
Bishop Woods finished his final game for Murray State with a career-high 13 tackles and 1.0 tackles-for-loss. Fellow senior Marico Paige followed Woods with eight tackles and 1.0 sacks. Each player also notched a quarterback hurry in the game as well.
OK, What’s Next?
Murray State will return to the stables where it will look to rebuild for the 2018 season during February’s signing day and replace the 13 seniors on this year’s squad.
by Parker Griffith
