GREELEY, Colo.— The South Dakota football team prevailed in their first road test of the 2026 season against the Big Sky's Northern Colorado Bears with a 38-23 win from Nottingham Field behind two rushing scores from
Charles Pierre Jr.
"Really happy to get a road victory. It took all three phases to contribute to get the win," noted head coach
Matt Vitzthum following the victory. "Not our cleanest game but good teams find a way to win when they don't have their 'A' game. Excited to get on the tape and improve heading into Game 3."
Both first quarter scores came from explosive 40+ yard plays with neither team finding the red zone in the opening 15 minutes from Nottingham Field. It would be Northern Colorado who scored the first points of the day with a 54-yard touchdown pass for the first explosive play of the night.
The Coyotes pushed into Bear territory for the first time on the third drive as
Austyn Modrzewski found
Brayden White open over the middle. The very next play, a reverse, to
Tennel Bryant took it 46 yards to the house to knot the game up at 7-7.
For the second-straight game, Modrzewski again settled in and finished the first half 10-for-16 for 114 yards and a touchdown. He would lead back-to-back scoring drives gave South Dakota the 14-7 advantage early in the second quarter.
Modrzewski orchastrated a 10-play, 90-yard drive in just over two minutes to give South Dakota the two score lead before the half. The drive included a chunk play with a 25-yard pass over the middle to
Tysen Boze that would lead to a 10-yard touchdown reception from White, who brings down a touchdown reception in back-to-back games.
The Bears responded with a push into Coyote territory with under a minute in the half, looking to cut into the two touchdown deficit. With six seconds left on the clock in the first half and the ball on the USD-21 yard line, Northern Colorado elected to take a shot at the touchdown. It fell incomplete with one tick on the clock and the Bears hit the 39-yard field goal to make it 21-10 Yotes at the break.
On the first drive of the second half, the Bears pushed into USD territory but a tackle for loss from
Jaylen Boehm-Peterson and
Chris Dixon, followed by a UNC false start stalled the Northern Colorado drive. Driven out of field goal range, UNC elected to go for it on fourth-and-11 at their 37-yard line but penalties from USD kept the ball with the Bears putting them into the red zone.
Northern Colorado would punch it in, ultimately, on that first second half drive to make it a one-score contest with South Dakota holding the 21-17 advantage. In the first USD possession of the second half, the Yotes drove it 73 yards on 10 plays to make it 28-17 and taking control of the game.
The second half also saw special teams fireworks for the Coyotes with a
Lincoln Adams blocked punt in the final minutes of the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter, Modrzewski would find newcomer
Bryce Cohoon in the corner of the endzone for Cohoon's first reception and touchdown grab as a Yote as South Dakota extended their lead to 38-17. The rest of the game saw more Yotes get some action on defense. Northern Colorado would go down the field one last time for a touchdown with under five minutes remaining, failing the 2-point attempt, making it 38-23.
The Yotes would recover the onside kick attempt and burn the rest of the clock, moving to 2-0 for the first time since the 2017 season under Bob Nielson.
The two touchdowns from Pierre Jr. on the night moved his rushing score total to 23 in his career and into fourth-place in the USD FCS era.
UP NEXT: South Dakota returns to the DakotaDome next Saturday, September 12 when they play host to the Eagles of Eastern Washington. Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m. from Vermillion.
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