CHARLESTON – Charleston Southern (1-6, 0-4) fell to #8 Southeast Missouri (7-1, 4-0) on Saturday night by a final score of 26-13, hanging in with one of the nation's best under the lights of Buccaneer Field.
 
The Redhawks were able to jump ahead in the first quarter with DC Pippin knocking in a pair of field goals. The first came from 25 yards out at the 11:35 mark with the second from 24 yards out at the 4:04 mark.
 
At the end of the quarter, the Bucs started to put together a drive beginning at their 25-yard line with them putting it on the ground for the first six plays with Tyson Greenwade breaking out a 31-yard run. During the drive, Rob McCoy went out with an ankle injury leading to Kaleb Jackson coming in at quarterback. On the first play of the quarter, Jackson found Rhone in the side of the endzone with him tapping his foot down to get a 26-yard touchdown score and with the PAT gave the Bucs a 7-6 lead.
 
On the ensuing drive, the Redhawks marched down the field again and kicked through a 34-yard field goal to regain the lead at 9-7. SEMO got the ball back again and engineered a 17-play, 83-yard drive with them needing an unnecessary roughness penalty and seven plays from inside the three-yard line to punch it in and claim a 16-7 lead heading into halftime.
 
Coming out of the break, CSU's Chandler Perry forced a fumble and recovered it himself, but the Bucs went three-and-out on their possession leading to a punt. The Redhawks were able to get another touchdown drive and had a 20-yard pass from Paxton DeLaurent to Kyron Downing to bump their lead to 23-7.
 
The Bucs were able to force a stop on the Redhawks' next possession and this led to an eight-play, 77-yard drive led by Jackson to cut into their deficit. He connected with Rhone on a deep post route for their second TD connection of the day with this one coming from 44 yards out and being the final play of the third quarter. After a failed two-point conversion, the Bucs brought the score to 23-13. SEMO was stopped again in the red zone by the Bucs' defense to start the fourth and converted on a 27-yard field goal to bring the scoreline to 26-13 which is what the final score stood at.
 
Jackson finished the day going 9-15 for 125 yards and a pair of touchdowns. McCoy was a perfect 3-3 before his exit and tossed for 22 yards. Autavius Ison led the team in rushing with 11 carries for 44 yards while Greenwade had eight rushes for 43 yards.
 
SEMO's quarterback, DeLaurent, tossed for 335 yards off 32 completions on 55 attempts. He had five receivers finish with three or more receptions with Tristan Smith leading the team with 90 receiving yards.
 
Steve Zayachkowsky led the team in tackles with 10 on the night. Champ Brantley, Josh Hill and Darrius Bell each had 1.5 tackles for loss on the evening, with Bell's total including a solo sack in the fourth quarter.
 
Gilbert Brown continued to raise his name among the nation's best punters. He booted a 62-yarder during the contest as he finished with five punts and an average of 46.8 yards. He had two kicks go over 50 yards with three being downed inside the 20.
 
Charleston Southern will now prepare for another conference road trip as they will head to Cookeville, Tennessee to take on Tennessee Tech (2-5, 2-2). The kickoff for the game is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. with each team looking for their first wins of October.