SEMO quarterback Paxton DeLaurent has played in 37 games at the collegiate level – none compared to what he experienced at Houck Stadium on Saturday night.

When asked in a postgame interview if this was the craziest game he has ever been a part of, the senior nodded his head and gave the most assuring “yes” one could imagine.

“To go back out there, then they miss a field goal, and you're backed up 30 yards, and you find a way to get in field goal range, then DC iced it,” DeLaurent said. “It was incredible.”

That final chain of events paints the picture for what ended up being one of the wildest and most improbable SEMO football games in recent memory. Trailing 35-21 in the fourth quarter, the Redhawks clawed their back from a 14-point deficit to defeat UT Martin, 45-42, in double overtime on Saturday, Sept. 7.

DeLaurent – who led the offense to three straight scoring drives on their final three possessions of the game – insisted he never had doubts.

“Coach Tuke has preached saying ‘one play at a time,’” he said. “Something I struggled with in my career. Even at fall camp, I had a blow up. So, it's something I've worked on. I got a phrase: ‘open one play, execute now.’ And I just say a little quick prayer like, ‘God is with me.’ When you say all those things, you're prepared, relaxed and ready to open.”

Saturday’s game essentially represented SEMO’s offense up to this point in a nutshell: swinging momentum, dicing up the secondary, and trusting DeLaurent’s arm.

DeLaurent, who has bounced back from a non-throwing shoulder injury suffered in Week 0, posted video game numbers on Saturday night behind a career-high 376 passing yards and six passing touchdowns on a whopping 63 attempts. To say that SEMO leaned on the signal caller’s arm all game is putting it lightly considering that the offense only handed the ball off four times.

“We had a game plan, and we thought they were going to try to stop the run,” DeLaurent said. “They're putting nine guys in the box, so it’s hard to run like that. We had one on ones everywhere, and we felt like we had favorable matchups on the outside. The o-line did a wonderful job protecting on I think three sacks and 63 attempts. Can't ask for anything better than that.”

But DeLaurent’s grittiness and how it’s translated into team success is what has brought SEMO to a strong 2-1 start. In the past two games, the senior has completed 56.4 percent of his passes with just one turnover.

Big picture: SEMO is the early front runner for the Big South-OVC title after knocking off UT Martin, the reigning three-time champions.

Having a terrific leader like DeLaurent makes their chances even greater.

“I'm looking around down the sideline and I think for a split second I was like, ‘damn, might have been my last chance’ and then everyone came over and they're like, ‘you're our leader, we're not going to let you down and you're not going let us down.’ And it was like, ‘let's go.’ I got chills right now.”