COLUMBIA – Coming into Saturday’s matchup, the Southeast Missouri State (SEMO) Redhawks had not scored a touchdown in any of their four previous games at Faurot Field in Columbia against the Missouri Tigers. That did change on Saturday, Sept. 18, but Missouri still trounced SEMO 59-28.
The first half started well, as Missouri scored on all six of their drives, with all but one culminating in a touchdown. Both quarterback Connor Bazelak and running back Tyler Badie starred, as Bazelak was 21-30 with 346 yards and three passing touchdowns, and Badie had 81 yards rushing and an additional 15 yards receiving, resulting in three touchdowns himself.
Dominic Lovett led the team in receiving yards, with 79 yards on just four receptions, with an enormous 61 yards after catch. The Missouri defense was stout, allowing just 69 yards in the half, and never allowing SEMO to pass the 50 yard line. At halftime, the score was 38-0.
With the passing of halftime came in the second string for Mizzou, as Brady Cook entered the game to get some reps at quarterback. His first drive ended in a touchdown pass to Elijah Young after a 12-play, 57 yard drive. However, the next drive, SEMO flipped the narrative, and after a long 75-yard drive, running back Geno Hess punched in the Redhawks first touchdown ever against Missouri.
Quarterback Tyler Macon came in the next drive for Missouri, and quickly got his first touchdown pass with a 65-yard pass to JJ Hester. SEMO scored a touchdown on their next drive, then Mizzou finally punted after scoring on their previous eight drives. After a few touchdowns were exchanged, including one final one to cover the spread by SEMO, the final score was 59-28.
Bazelak, with his first half numbers of 346 yards and three touchdowns, would end as the leading passer for Missouri, while Badie led Mizzou with 81 rushing yards and two touchdowns. After the game, Missouri head coach Eliah Drinkwitz said that he thinks “both of them got some good work in.”
Missouri allowed just 69 yards on defense in the first half, which was when a majority of first stringers got their reps in. On that, Drinkwitz said the run defense was “much better at destroying blocks. I thought we were much better at tackling. We still had a couple of contain issues.”
This was the first game in which defensive coordinator Steve Wilks moved to the booth instead of the sideline, which Drinkwitz said was better for their play, “He was able to see things and make little tips. So yeah, that was good.”
The Missouri Tigers improve to 2-1, and now go on to face Boston College next week in Chestnut Hill, Mass. Boston College won their game this week against Temple 28-3. SEMO fell to 0-3, and will host Tennessee State in Cape Girardeau, Mo. next Saturday.