VERMILLION, S.D.—Seventh-ranked South Dakota ran two interceptions back for touchdowns and forced five turnovers in all in shutting out Southern Illinois 42-0 Saturday inside the DakotaDome.
The win gives the Coyotes (7-1, 4-1 MVFC) their most victories at the Division I level and inside Valley play. South Dakota, responding from a loss for the first time all season, improved to 4-0 at home and remain one game back of North Dakota State in the conference standings.
The game was billed as a battle between the Valley's top two quarterbacks, but that narrative was quickly erased when both starters were injured in the first half and did not return. South Dakota quarterback
Chris Streveler was injured near the goal line on the first series of the game. Southern Illinois' Sam Straub was removed early in the second quarter.
Austin Simmons replaced Streveler and finished the opening drive with a 2-yard touchdown pass to tight end
Brett Samson on third down. The Coyotes skipped 87 yards in nine plays on drive two and scored on a 1-yard dive by
Kai Henry. South Dakota outgained SIU 134-32 in the opening quarter.
A fumble forced by USD defensive end
Nick Kramer and scooped up by safety
Ben Garlock set up the third touchdown of the first half. Simmons connected with
Alonge Brooks down the right sideline for a 17-yard touchdown strike that extended the lead to 21-0. It was the fourth touchdown grab of the season for Brooks.
Between Straub and backup Tanner Hearn, the Salukis (4-4, 2-3) netted 110 yards in the first half and possessed the ball for less than 12 minutes. Hearn passed for 207 in the second half, but the Coyotes took full advantage of his mistakes. He didn't see South Dakota safety
Andrew Gray sitting on a slant pattern near the goal line. Gray made the play and scurried 97 yards for a touchdown – the longest interception return in program history, and the program's first pick-six since 2013. It made the score 28-0 with 20 seconds left in the third quarter.
South Dakota safety
Mike Johnson cut in front of a Hearn pass and raced 79 yards for the final blow of the game with 3:29 remaining. Hearn finished 14 of 33 for 231 yards and four interceptions. He was also sacked three times. Saluki quarterbacks had been sacked three times all season entering the weekend.
Simmons finished 11 of 18 for 91 yards in his first extended action since leading South Dakota to a win against Illinois State last season in Vermillion. The Coyotes ran 49 times for 177 yards and two scores. Mike Fredrick led the way with 19 carries for a season-high 94 yards including a 1-yard touchdown run with 5:39 to go. Henry had 73 yards on 17 totes and
Ben Klett added 18 yards on eight tries.
South Dakota competed without starting cornerbacks
Adam Harris and
Danny Rambo, but got noteworthy performances from the position nonetheless. Junior
Isaac Armstead earned his first collegiate interception and finished with six solo tackles. On the other side, Mark Collins had two tackles, one for loss, and was credited with four pass breakups. Junior
Brandon Colpitts also grabbed his first collegiate interception.
November greets South Dakota with three consecutive ranked teams. First up is next weekend's road trip to Cedar Falls to face No. 25 Northern Iowa (4-4, 3-2), which lost 30-14 at No. 2 North Dakota State Saturday. Kickoff from UNI-Dome is set for 1 p.m.
Post-game quotes from Bob Nielson:
Opening Statement…
"It's kind of interesting how the theme for the week was that we have to have guys step up. You know, that theme started in response to the game last week where we didn't feel our defense played very well. I thought that unit really stepped up today, and then obviously you have a situation where you lose one of the premiere players in the country on the first series and you have a guy like
Austin Simmons that has to step up.
"It was a great win, it's a great win for our program. I think our coaches did a really good job this week helping our guys rebound. I really felt, particularly on the defensive side of the ball, we put our guys in great places. We started well offensively, scoring in the first two drives, actually moving the ball on the third drive there until it got stopped on 4th and 1, but we knew this was a team that we needed to get ahead of and we were able to do that."
On both starting quarterbacks being injured…
"What an ironic situation. Two of the best quarterbacks in the conference, statistically the top two passing guys in the league. Both teams lose their guy in the first quarter. It does change the game a little bit. I'm sure it limited their offensive game plan. It limited ours a little bit. I thought we got pretty stale offensively in the third quarter. Then we just re-made a commitment to run the football there in the fourth quarter. I felt really good about that drive. From a standpoint, we didn't change many calls. We pressured a little bit more than we probably would have the other quarterback just because he's really good at getting the ball out quick. Our plan was to get more coverage, so we pressured a little bit more with the back-up quarterback.
On the defense pitching a shutout…
"I know they were really disappointed after last week, giving up all of those big plays and so we talked this week about getting back to playing Coyote defense like we played over the first six weeks. That's one of the things we hadn't done a very good job of honestly is forcing turnovers. It was great to see our defense just force turnovers today. When you get a defensive score in a college game, there's a pretty good likelihood that you're going to win and we got two of them today."
On reaching seven wins…
"Everybody talks about seven wins being such a magic number, and don't get me wrong, it certainly was a huge game, but I think from a football standpoint our guys realize that seven wins is seven wins. We've got goals as a football team that are higher. The game at Northern Iowa is going to play a big role in our being in a position to achieve all of those goals."
