Football Punches Playoff Ticket with Blowout Victory

Saturday, November 7

Brookings, S.D.

1:00 PM

Southern Illinois University

8-1 , 7-0

South Dakota St.

7-2 , 6-1

Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final F
Southern Illinois	10	17	7	0	34
South Dakota State	0	3	0	12	15

11/07/2009 | 12:00:00 | Football

Box Score

Nov. 7, 2009

By Jason Clay
www.SIUSalukis.com

Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery

BROOKINGS, S.D. - No. 3 Southern Illinois dominated No. 9 South Dakota State in a 34-15 victory Saturday at Coughlin Alumni Stadium to secure at least a share of SIU's fifth Missouri Valley Football Conference Championship and its seventh-straight playoff appearance.

The win was the 13th conference victory in a row for the Salukis, as they tied Northern Iowa's MVFC record for the most consecutive league victories. Southern Illinois has now won eight-straight games this year and stands at 8-1 overall and 7-0 in the conference. The Dawgs can secure the outright league title with a win next weekend against Missouri State in the final regular season game at McAndrew Stadium.

"I thought our coaching staff and players had a very good week of preparation and our players did a great job of executing today," head coach Dale Lennon said. "We took advantage of every opportunity they gave us today. It's a good win, but at the same time it is game No. 9 and now we have to move on to game No. 10. We can't afford to lose our edge and can't be too satisfied with what we've accomplished so far."

South Dakota State (7-2, 6-1 MVFC) came into the game with the nation's top scoring defense that only allowed 89 yards rushing a game, but the Salukis had a field day on offense. Deji Karim became the first running back to rush for over 100 yards against the Jackrabbits this season, as he had 127 yards on 21 carries. SIU as a team racked up 280 yards on the ground and 388 of total offense.

The Saluki defense held SDSU to 14 yards rushing and had six sacks against the Jackrabbit offensive line that came into the game with just nine sacks allowed in their first eight games. SDSU finished with 342 yards of total offense, but 154 of that came in the fourth quarter after the final outcome was pretty much set in stone.

Lance Caldwell had a pair of interceptions for the Dawgs, as they have now picked off a pass in 10-straight games. He returned one of his picks 75-yards for a touchdown right before halftime and that was the fifth longest interception return for a touchdown in school history.

Redshirt freshman Paul McIntosh put up good numbers in the win. He threw for two touchdowns and had 184 yards of total offense (108 passing, 76 rushing). Jeff Evans and John Goode were the recipients of his two touchdown passes and junior kicker Kyle Dougherty made a pair of field goals.

The Salukis meant business right from the get-go and scored on four of their first five possessions. Defensively they had five sacks in the first half and held the Jacks to just 130 yards on 47 plays in the first 30 minutes.

Southern Illinois forced the Jacks to go three-and-out on the games opening drive thanks to a sack by Brandin Jordan. That set up SIU's first possession where Kyle Dougherty hit a season-long 49-yard field goal to start the scoring Saturday.

After a couple more sacks by Kyle Walker and the Saluki defense, Southern Illinois got the ball back and drove down 70 yards on eight plays for a touchdown late in the first quarter. McIntosh passed the ball directly out to Joe Allaria, who caught it and took it in 21-yards for a touchdown. The play was ruled a lateral because the pass went backwards, thus giving Allaria his second career rushing touchdown.

After the turn of the first quarter, South Dakota State found themselves with a first-and-goal at the SIU one-yard line. The Saluki defense stuffed them on their first two tries setting up a third down. There the Jacks tried to go around the left side, but Robert Spann blew the play up in the backfield, allowing Marty Rodgers and Jason Seaman to drop Tyler Duffy for a four-yard loss.

That forced the Jacks to settle for a 23-yard Peter Reifenrath field goal at 12:19 to make it a 10-3 Saluki lead.

Midway through the second quarter the Saluki defense once again forced the Jacks into a punting situation on a fourth-and-25. SDSU punter Dean Priddy mishandled the snap allowing Mike McElroy to tackle him at the Jackrabbit six-yard line.

Two plays later McIntosh hit Goode for a four-yard touchdown pass to put SIU up 17-3 with 6:39 left in the half.

Karim set up what was appeared to be the last score of the first half with a 41-yard rush that led to a 22-yard Dougherty field goal. However, Caldwell intercepted a Ryan Crawford pass and had his long return for a touchdown to give the Salukis a 27-3 lead going into the locker rooms.

Southern Illinois came out in the third quarter and picked up right where they left off. SIU received the kickoff to start the period and McIntosh led them down 80 yards on eight plays for a score. The touchdown came on a 40-yard pass to Jeff Evans, who made a great catch by the front pylon in the end zone.

The Jackrabbits drove down into the Saluki red zone late in the third quarter, but once again the Dawgs held their own. On a fourth-and-six at the nine-yard line, Caldwell intercepted his second pass of the game in the end zone and downed it for a touchback.

Before the Jackrabbits' last couple of drives late in the fourth quarter, they had negative eight yards rushing the ball. SDSU did add a pair of late touchdowns, but nothing could dampen the Saluki victory to give them their fifth conference championships since 2003.