UNA football faced Southeast Missouri State for the season kickoff on Aug. 24th at 6 p.m. at neutral ground Cramton Bowl Stadium in Montgomery. A balanced first half turned into a fourth-quarter collapse for the Lions, leading the Redhawks to a 37-15 victory.
The ESPN televised game started UNA’s second straight year as part of FCS’s opening game.
Aware of the game’s importance, UNA Student Government sponsored one hundred spots for students to attend the Cramton Bowl, including tickets and transportation.
The week preceding the start of the season was characterized by intense practice and goal setting.
Preparation for the game had to be theoretical and analytic. The Lions last faced the Redhawks in 1956, winning 61-13. Neither team had a recent confrontation on which to base their tactics.
On Wednesday, the 21st, head coach Brent Dearmon ended practice with a confident motivational speech. “Love you guys to death,” said the coach, followed by the players’ excited chants.
The head coach confessed SEMO represented a challenge through its “elite quarterback,” Paxton DeLaurent, explaining the goal was to confuse the Redhawks.
The first quarter began with SEMO winning the toss and taking field leadership. The Redhawks gained fifty-seven yards in twelve plays, and DeLaurent managed eight out of ten passes, leading to the first touchdown scored by Cam Pedro.
Rapid action was taken by the Lions. With eighty-seven yards passed in seven plays, UNA’s Jayvian Allen managed a sixty-two-yard sprint, reaching SEMO’s end zone soon after.
The Lions reached leadership at 8-7 with wide receiver Tanaka Scott’s successful two-point conversion.
In the second quarter, with less than five minutes to halftime, Ari Patu’s eleven-yard run earned UNA its second touchdown and the quarterback’s first score for his new team. Followed by Sam Contorno’s kick, the score favored the Lions at 15-7.
Patu attended Stanford University, where he played for three seasons. The athlete came to UNA for “believing in Dearmon and the team’s mission.”
The quarterback claims to be grateful for the program for teaching him how to “simplify football and eliminate what we don’t need to know.”
Contorno is in his sixth and final season playing for UNA. The kicker expressed his desire to be remembered not only as a great player but as a great person and student, which reflects the program’s identity.
Unfortunately, Contorno performed the last score UNA would manage for the kickoff.
With forty-six yards in ten plays, SEMO reached the end zone with eighteen seconds to go, ending the first half at 15-13 for the Lions.
A defensive lapse by UNA allowed Southeast Missouri’s Payton Brown to sprint twenty-five yards in the third quarter, resulting in a change of leadership to 21-15 for the Redhawks.
Brown scored three consecutive touchdowns, with the third in the fourth quarter. SEMO rushed seventy-eight yards in seven plays, bringing the score to 27-15 with the last play a one-yard distance from the end zone.
With less than six minutes to the end, SEMO’s Carter Hensley scored in three plays after the Lions slipped on their side of the field. Followed by DC Pippin’s kick, increasing the lead to 34-15.
With a forty-one-yard field goal by Pippin, the Redhawks closed the score at 37-15 due to Justus Johnson’s interception of a UNA pass.
The Lions returned from intermission with a different energy than they had at the beginning of the game; the fumbles in defense cost UNA their first season game.
On Aug. 31st, UNA will proceed to face the University of Memphis Tigers in Tennessee.
