Box Score |

EUGENE, Ore.--Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota passed for 267 yards and accounted for four touchdowns - all in the first half - to lead third-ranked Oregon to a 62-13 win against South Dakota Saturday at Autzen Stadium in the season opener for both teams.

It was the first-ever meeting between the two programs and South Dakota's first matchup with a team from the Pac-12 Conference. Oregon scored touchdowns on six of its seven first-half possessions and racked up 673 yards of offense in the win.

Miles Bergner capped South Dakota's first offensive possession with a career-long, 47-yard field goal that cut an early Oregon lead to 8-3. Bergner made a 25-yarder in the second quarter that made it 21-6.

Coyote running back Trevor Bouma capped a 6-play, 75-yard drive with a 3-yard touchdown run that made it 35-13 just before halftime. Jasper Sanders broke off a 45-yard run and added a 17-yard scamper to set up the score. Sanders (65) and Bouma (60) combined for 125 yards rushing to lead USD.

USD quarterback Kevin Earl completed 13 of 26 passes for 136 yards in three quarters of work. Riley Donovan had four catches for 42 yards. Ryan Saeger threw for 62 yards on 5 of 8 passes in the fourth quarter.

Mariota completed 14 of 20 passes and hooked up with Byron Marshall on touchdowns of 26 and 11 yards. He opened the scoring with a 62-yard strike to Dwayne Stanford less than 90 seconds into the contest. Mariota ran in from a yard away with 14 seconds left in the first half to give the Ducks a 48-13 halftime lead.

Marshall led all players with eight catches for 138 yards. Oregon passed for 380 yards as a team and ran 38 times for 293 yards and four scores.

South Dakota returns to Vermillion to host William Penn for its home opener at 2 p.m. Sept. 6 inside the DakotaDome.

Post-game quotes from USD head coach Joe Glenn:

Opening statement...
"I was really proud of our team's effort. Tried hard. Played a very good football team, a very talented football team. I think if you look back to last year, this is about what they did to most teams they played when Mariota was healthy. I know their first four games, they averaged over 60 points a game. I hope to think that that's their skill and they were just a little too much for us that's for sure."

On Oregon...
"I was impressed with their team. I was impressed with their coaching. They knew what they wanted to do and they came in and got it done. I am in fact proud that we continued to fight. Even though we didn't score in the second half, I thought our kids played hard and got better and we'll continue to get better, but tough place to come in and play. Tough team to come in and play. They are really good and time will bear that out."

On first-game jitters...
"They (our players) had anticipation like the coaches do and butterflies maybe for first game of the year, but I don't think they were nervous or psyched out or any of that stuff. I thought we weighed in there and traded some pretty heavy punches with them and then put some good drives together. Scored some points in the first half on their good team. We did some good things even though we didn't score any points in the second half. I'm proud of the effort our kids gave."

On offensive successes...
"We didn't really try to throw, throw, throw. We wanted to try to work on what we do and I think we showed some running backs who have some toughness and our line blocked tough. We saw some young receivers made some plays. How about Eric Shufford? I think he made a good account of himself. Aaron Ramsey was a guy I said our people would like before the season was over. He made a really fun play on the far sideline. Brandt Van Roekel had a couple of neat catches down the stretch in this game. He is a freshman so we got some things to look forward to."