APSU football (0-8, 0-6 OVC) tallied 397 total yards in a 41-21 loss to Southeast Missouri at Houck Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 29. The Redhawks’ offense benefitted from a 21-point led third quarter to mute the sounds of a Govs comeback. On the day freshman quarterback JaVaughn Craig recorded his first touchdown and touchdown pass of his APSU career.
Craig rushed for 126 yards and threw for 90 on the day, ending with a 12-17 performance on passes. He threw his first touchdown pass of his career late in the fourth and featured a 70 yard touchdown run on a read option in the third. The score was a 4-yard pass to Jared Beard.
Head Coach Will Healy said to letsgopeay.com “I’m proud of him [Craig]. He stepped into a tough situation, basically taking him off redshirt in game six and doing what was best for this team. The fumble killed us, and we have to take care of the football better than that. I think he’s throwing the deep ball well, but I don’t think he’s very accurate right now with the short passes, so we have to continue working on that.”
The other score for APSU came from Kentel Williams’ 68-yard dash in the third.
Williams’s run pulled APSU closer into the match, but SEMO took the following kickoff back 93 yards for 6 points. Couple that with a 17-0 lead at halftime and SEMO controlled the game entering the fourth up 31-14.
APSU rushed for 250 yards on the day, the most by the program since October 2015. The running performances by both Craig and Williams shattered the previous single rush record of 33 yards. Williams featured mostly as the halfback and earned over 100 purpose yards through 10 carries for 87 yards, 18 receiving yards and 31 return yards. This is Williams’ second game in a row surpassing the century mark on all purpose yards.
Jared Beard moved to fifth of all time on touchdown receptions for the Govs with 14. Gunnar Scholato recorded 18 tackles, the sixth highest amount in the NCAA this season. Sophomore James Bond, who had 10 tackles on the day, has now earned three separate single game performances with double-digit tackles.
