SIU battles back, but drops shootout vs. SDSU, 45-39

Saturday, October 8

Carbondale, Ill.

6:00 PM

Southern Illinois University

2-3 , 0-2

South Dakota State

3-2 , 2-0

Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final F
South Dakota State	14	14	7	10	45
Southern Illinois	7	11	14	7	39

10/08/2016 | 10:55:00 | Football

Box Score

By: John Lock

Photo Gallery

CARBONDALE, ILL. – The Southern Illinois football program battled back from a 17-point deficit but lost to No. 12 South Dakota State, 45-39, at Saluki Stadium on Saturday night. The two teams combined for 1,092 yards of total offense.

"We're always going to compete," SIU head coach Nick Hill said. "Our guys are competitors, that's what they're built to do. We've just got to find ways to win games."

The game was billed as a battle of maybe the two best offenses in the Missouri Valley Football Conference. South Dakota State (3-2, 2-0 MVFC) came into the game averaging a league-leading 45.0 points per game. The Salukis (2-3, 0-2 MVFC) were averaging 33 points and 467 yards.

Right from the start, it lived up to that billing. SDSU went 75 yards for a touchdown on its opening drive. The Salukis tied it up late in the first quarter on a Jonathan Mixon six-yard touchdown run.

South Dakota State had a series of quick strikes in the middle of the game to jump out to its lead. The Jacks had four consecutive touchdown drives—all more than 50 yards—that took less than a minute each. The last one, a one-play, 56-yard touchdown strike from Taryn Christion to Brady Mengarelli, put SDSU up by 17 points, 35-18.

But the Salukis battled back from there. The defense came up huge with three-straight 3-and-out stops. Jimmy Jones scored back-to-back touchdowns to get the Salukis within three. After SDSU pulled back ahead by 10, Southern answered right back with another Mixon touchdown run.

"You could really feel the momentum flip in the second half," Hill said. "I felt like we had the opportunity on a few drives there where we could've taken the lead. We weren't able to do that."

SIU did most of its battling without some of its most dynamic players. Daquan Isom and Deondre Barnett were among the Salukis who missed most of the game with injuries.

Late in the fourth quarter, Southern's defense held SDSU to a field goal, giving the offense a shot at the win, but the Jacks got back-to-back sacks on third and fourth down to stay tied atop the MVFC standings with North Dakota State and Youngstown State.

"Sometimes in shootout, it comes down to who has the ball last," Hill said. "We're on a two minute drive to win the game. Ultimately, we weren't able to do that. We really put ourselves in position, but they did what they had to do."

The Salukis are 0-2 in the MVFC, but they've also played two teams ranked in the top-12 nationally. There are still three games left against teams that were ranked in this week's top-25, but none are against teams ranked as highly as UNI and SDSU.

Next week, the Salukis travel to Illinois State for a 6 p.m. game against the Redbirds.

NOTES: Including his statistics from Stillman, Josh Straughan surpassed 7,000 career passing yards during the game...Straughan's 380 yards passing ranks seventh in SIU single-game history, and his 386 yards total offense ranks 10th in SIU single-game history...SIU dropped to 0-3 when it doesn't force a turnover and remains 2-0 when it forces at least one...SIU had more than 500 yards total offense for the third time in five games this season...Connor Iwema had a career-best 107 yards receiving...SIU's 422 yards passing ranks fourth in program single-game history...Billy Reed had eight catches. He is four away from becoming the 13th player in program history with 100 career receptions.