NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Draylen Ellis threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score to help Tennessee State beat Southeast Missouri State 28-21 Saturday for a share of the Big South-OVC title.
The Redhawks (9-3, 6-2), No. 11 in the FCS coaches poll, and No. 25 Tennessee State (9-3, 6-2) finish the regular season tied atop the conference standings with Tennessee Tech and UT Martin. Southeast Missouri State won the tiebreaker to earn an automatic spot into the FCS playoffs — for the fifth time in program history and fourth time under coach Tom Matukewicz — while the Tigers must hope for an at-large berth.
Tennessee State has its most single-season wins since 2013 and clinched a share of its first conference title since the Tigers won the OVC crown in 1999.
Ellis was 20-of-31 passing for 232 yards with no interceptions.
CJ Evans returned the opening kickoff 47 yards to near midfield before Ellis, on third-and-5, threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to Jalal Dean to open the scoring. Meonta Kimbrough’s strip-sack of Paxton DeLaurent was scooped up by Keandre Booker and returned 46 yards for a TD with 7:08 left in the first quarter and Evans caught a screen pass from Ellis and raced 57 yards for a touchdown to make it 21-0 with 2:35 until the second quarter.
DeLaurent threw TD passes of 31 yards to Dorian Anderson and 13 yards to Payton Brown to make it a 7-point game at halftime but Ellis ripped off a 42-yard touchdown run on the first play of the fourth quarter to give SEMO a 28-14 lead.
Brown added a 1-yard TD run with about 6 minutes left to cap the scoring.
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