SEMO Football continues to Shine; landing two players on this weeks OVC Player of the Week list

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (KBSI) -After SEMOs impressive 38 – 21 win over their arch rival SIU Carbondale the Redhawks had two players named to the Ohio Valley Conferences (OVC) team of the week.

Quarterback Paxton DeLaurent and freshman running back Payton Brown.

We talked to SEMO quarterback Paxton deLaurent who tells us, “Yes, something Coach always says is every individual award is a team award and obviously you know to be honest, I felt like I left 4 or 5 plays out there.”

DeLaurent looks back at his performance in Saturday’s game, recalling saying “I threw a bad interception. I missed a post the first drive of the third quarter on third down wide-open to Dorian he did an unbelievable job of getting open. I missed him.” DeLaurent says, “so there’s lots more plays to be made and it just shows how good our team is, you know that even I think I probably played a B style game and you still got an individual accolade because the other guys making great plays.”

During Saturday’s win, DeLaurent lead the Redhawks to an impressive air attack, throwing for 301 yards and four touchdowns, an impressive performance to be considered a “B” style game.

Along with DeLaurent we talked to SEMO freshman running back Payton Brown on being named OVC freshman of the week.

Brown discusses his performance in Saturday’s game saying, “I mean, it is cool and all it. It’s just another week though man we got it. We gotta take it to the next one. Take it to them then go in the next game it week by week, that was last week, it’s time for a new one.”

Brown ran for 124 yards on 18 attempts and recorded his 4 touchdown of his young campaign.

We asked DeLaurent what he has to say about Browns efforts so far this season.
“Payton, You know came here early you know and he just came in and dominated worked hard head down at first, and then you could tell early the summer. He was a leader. You know there’s not many freshmen standing in the front of lines and strength and waves and conditioning is up there in the front, leading by example.”

DeLaurent also impressed with Browns ability to block on pass plays, an impressive assets the freshman brings to the table.

DeLaurent tells us, “that’s why I can trust him so much to be in the right spaces and to pick up blitzes like that’s an undervalued thing that running backs do but you’re not gonna play in the NFL. You’re not gonna be a great player if you can’t do that stuff so, so it’s awesome to see him do that him do that.”

Brown says that’s just the type of skill set he’s work to build, Brown says, “if you wanna be great you gotta go and do the extra stuff and then I wanted to know as much as I could as fast as I could to get in and get the reps to be able to get out here on a Saturday.”

The Redhawks prepare for their second home game of the season on Saturday as they host Northwestern State.