YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio—Cold, windy and wet proved the perfect forecast for a Penguin as Youngstown State built a 22-0 halftime lead and got a late pick six from cornerback DJ Smalls to secure a 29-17 Missouri Valley Football Conference win against South Dakota Saturday at Stambaugh Stadium.
YSU running back Tevin McCaster, the Valley's top rusher entering the weekend, ran 36 times for a season-high 176 yards and a touchdown. He was complimented by quarterback Montgomery VanGorder, who passed for 131 and a score and ran for a score. The Penguins improved to 3-4 overall and 2-2 in the Valley.
South Dakota (3-4, 2-2) fumbled on the third play of the game, mustered 43 yards in the first half and played catchup the entire game. Its defense, which surrendered 256 yards before halftime, pitched a shutout in the second half and even produced three turnovers. But the mountain was too tall and the Coyotes have lost two in a row for the first time this season.
USD quarterback
Austin Simmons completed 16 of 38 passes for 158 yards.
Dakarai Allen made seven catches for 97 yards.
Kai Henry ran 10 times for 80 yards and scored two touchdowns in the second half after running twice for minus-1 yard in the first.
Jake Richardson forced VanGorder to fumble early in the third quarter and
Kai Henry quickly scored on a 14-yard rumble to the end zone that got USD on the board at 22-7 a minute into the third quarter. The Coyotes then marched 68 yards and had 1
st-and-goal at the 2. But a bad read on an option play set the Coyotes back three yards and two incomplete passes forced a field goal and a 22-10 deficit.
South Dakota failed to get a half a yard on three tries from its own 36 in the middle of the third quarter, but the Coyote defense got its own stop on fourth down to get the ball back. USD reached the Youngstown State 35 on another drive, but a false start on a 4
th-and-6 play led to a punt. The Coyotes climbed back to the YSU 40 with more than six minutes to go, but Smalls jumped an out route and took it 65 yards the other way for the final blow.
Nursing its lead, Youngstown State completed just one pass on five attempts in the second half. After netting 23 yards in the third quarter, the Penguins asked backup quarterback Nathan Mays to come in to run the option in the fourth. Mays led a 66-yard drive that drained six minutes, but stalled when
Darin Greenfield forced and recovered a McCaster fumble at the USD 20. Mays and the Penguins then drained the final four minutes off the clock to end the game. He carried six times for 76 yards in the fourth quarter.
Greenfield turned in one his top performances of the year for the Coyote defense. In addition to finishing with a career-high nine solo tackles, he had two tackles-for-loss, forced two turnovers via the fumble and was credited with three quarterback hurries.
Safety
Elijah Reed had a career-high 11 tackles for the Coyotes.
Andrew Gray had nine tackles and two pass breakups, becoming the 13
th USD player since 2000 to compile 200 career tackles in the process.
South Dakota heads home and will host top-ranked and undefeated North Dakota State in a 2 p.m. kickoff inside the DakotaDome. NDSU topped Illinois State 28-14 Saturday to improve to 7-0 on the season.
