Salukis Roll in Home Opener

Saturday, September 19

Carbondale, Ill.

6:00 PM

Southern Illinois University

1-1

Southwest Baptist

0-4

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Southwest Baptist

Southern Illinois

09/19/2009 | 12:00:00 | Football

Box Score

Sept. 19, 2009

By Jason Clay
www.SIUSalukis.com

Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery

CARBONDALE, Ill. - Senior running back Deji Karim set a new school record for the most rushing yards per carry and Southern Illinois racked up the second most offensive yardage in program history as the Salukis defeated Southwest Baptist (0-4), 59-7, Saturday night at McAndrew Stadium.

SIU (1-1) finished the game with 699 yards of total offense. Karim averaged 21.0 yards on his 10 carries, shattering the old school record by almost seven yard a carry for a back with at least 10 attempts.

Head coach Dale Lennon, whose team had a bye last weekend, said that these last two weeks have been very long.

"The guys were hungry and they wanted to play tonight," Lennon said. "You know, you just finish a game, and you lose and you feel like you had a chance to win and then you have to sit a week. I don't think that they over looked Southwest Baptist and I feel that we really needed to win the game tonight and the guys responded."

Much of the offensive outburst came on the ground. Of the 699 total yards, 435 of it came by the run, which is the seventh-most ever in a Saluki game. Fullback Lucien Walker added 78 yards on 14 carries and Richard White added 53 yards on 11 carries.

Not to be surprised, Southern Illinois produced big plays all night long. Of SIU's eight touchdowns in the game, four of them went for 39 yards or more.

Karim led the Dawgs with 290 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns. His 61-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter was the longest run of his career. He rushed for a career-high 210 yards in all Saturday, with two touchdowns and he returned a kickoff 82 yards for SIU's first score of the game.

Junior quarterback Chris Dieker completed 14-of-17 passes for 243 yards and he accounted for three scores (two passing and one rushing). Dieker's 82.4 completion percentage was the fifth-best in school history.

Junior wide receiver Joe Allaria had a career night. He set new personal bests with seven catches for 144 yards and scored one touchdown on a 77-yard pass from Dieker.

The Bearcats were led by quarterback Steve Gachette, who finished the game with 210 yards passing and 63 rushing. However, he threw three interceptions, two of which went to junior Korey Lindsey.

Southwest Baptist came out swinging and took the game's opening drive 78 yards in for the score. Gachette completed 6-of-7 passes on the drive, which he capped off with an 18-yard TD pass to Charles Johnson.

SIU would not be flustered and countered with a flurry. Karim started it by returning the ensuing kickoff 82 yards for the score. SIU's secondary unit took exception to Gachette's efforts on the first drive and intercepted him the next two times SBU had the ball.

"When they scored, it stunned us all," Karim said. "When we got in that huddle on the kickoff return, I was fired up. So was Richard (White) and everybody else in the huddle. We said right then and there it was time to put that to an end and this is where it stops."

Lindsey's first pick of the game set up 21-yard Kyle Dougherty field goal and senior Mike McElroy's interception led to SIU's second touchdown. That came via the 77-yard Dieker pass to Allaria at the 3:50 mark of the first quarter. It is the longest pass of Dieker's career.

Dieker and the Salukis continued to roll right at the start of the second quarter. He hit Jeff Evans on a 39-yard touchdown pass just two minutes into the quarter. After two more minutes had passed, Karim scored his second touchdown of the game on a six-yard run.

Southern finished the half scoring one more time on a one-yard Dieker run. The Salukis had 364 yards of total offense at halftime, which were 53 more than they had in the season opener.

Karim continued his magic in the third quarter. He scored 29 seconds into the period on a career-long 61 yard run.

By then the Salukis were up 45-7 and they took their starters out of the game.

Walker and and running back Anton Wilkins scored the last two TDs for SIU on the ground.

Southern Illinois returns home next weekend for its conference opener against North Dakota State. The Saturday game is set to kickoff at 6 p.m. at McAndrew Stadium.