The Southeast Missouri State Redhawks football team added the No. 20 Tennessee State Tigers to its "brickyard" on Saturday by defeating the Tigers 28-21 at Houck Stadium at the homecoming game.

The "brickyard" is a to-be-established graveyard of sorts located at the practice field where they will bury a brick of each of the Top 25-ranked teams they defeat from now on, coach Tom Matukewicz stated.

"Top 25 teams, their dreams come to die here at Houck," Matukewicz said.

Southeast has now defeated two ranked Football Championship Subdivision teams this season under Matukewicz, the other being No. 3 Southeastern Louisiana, something that has never been accomplished in the team's history.

Southeast set a season-high for attendance on Saturday with there being a total of 8,089 fans at the game.

To start out the game, the Tigers (4-2, 1-1) received the ball but were held to two three-and-outs on their first two possessions by a Redhawks defense that held them to only seven points in the first half.

Unlike Tennessee State, Southeast scored on its first two drives with the first score being a career-long 55-yard field goal by sophomore kicker Ryan McCrum.

McCrum made another field goal in the game making him a perfect seven for seven on the season, unlike last year when he only made two out of six field goal attempts.

Southeast's second score of the game came from senior quarterback Kyle Snyder on the team's second drive when he ran it in for a 6-yard touchdown.

The Redhawk's defense continued to show its dominance when Tennessee State attempted a 25-yard field goal that was blocked by senior cornerback Tim Hamm-Bey, who was named the Ohio Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Week.

Hamm-Bey was the first Southeast player to earn the honor since linebacker Blake Peiffer in 2011.

That was also Hamm-Bey's second blocked kick of the year, tying him for third in the FCS in blocked kicks.

Tennessee State was without its leading rusher, junior running back Tom Smith, who was out for the game due to a leg injury. Instead Tennessee State went with junior running back Telvin Hooks.

The Tigers fed Hooks the ball 14 times in the first half for 64 yards and he broke one of those carries for a 42-yard run in the first quarter.

Junior running back Lewis Washington was the highlight of Southeast's fourth drive when ran the ball four times and barreled his way in for a 1-yard touchdown to give the Redhawks a commanding 17-0 lead with 9:04 remaining in the second quarter.

Tennessee State's only score of the half came when senior fullback Stephe Hopkins got his only carry of the game for a 2-yard rushing touchdown with 34 seconds left in the first half.

Hook only got two more carries in the rest of the game with Tennessee State's senior quarterback Michael German passing the ball 59 times for 362 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.

Hamm-Bey broke up five of those passes and has a team-high of nine for the season.

The only score of the third quarter came from a 10-yard pass from German to sophomore wide receiver Chris Sanders-McCollum, who also led the Tigers in receiving with nine catches and 104 yards.

Southeast did not turn the ball over for the first time this season.

Not turning the ball over was big for senior running back Lennies McFerren, who fumbled once each time in his last two games.

"Man, that's so awesome," McFerren said. "Once we knew we didn't have any turnovers, we were going to beat these guys. We kept the ball to ourselves and just kept pushing. I'm glad the (offensive)-line kept pushing, I knew it was going to be a fight upfront."

McFerren was named the Player of the Game with his 115 rushing yards and Southeast's final touchdown of the game on 21 attempts.

"This is my last homecoming, it's tearful you know, it's my last one," McFerren said. "I know I had to do it. Like they say, 'You've got to leave it out on the field because you never know when you're going to play this game again.' I'd like to thank God for that."

Snyder has also had turnover trouble this season, but equally ran and passed the ball 18 times each for a total of 201 yards against the Tigers.

With this win, Southeast is 4-2 overall and 2-0 in OVC play. The Redhawks will face the Murray State Racers (1-4, 0-2) in conference play this Saturday at Stewart Stadium in Murray, Kentucky.