South Dakota shuts out SIU, 42-0

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Oct 11

2:30 PM

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#1/#1 North Dakota State

Fargo, ND

Oct 18

2 PM

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#15/#14 North Dakota

Carbondale, IL

Oct 25

2 PM

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Northern Iowa

Carbondale, IL

Nov 1

4 PM

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Murray State

Murray, KY

Nov 8

1 PM (CT)

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#19/#24 Youngstown State

Youngstown, OH

Nov 15

12 PM

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#18/#17 South Dakota

Carbondale, IL

Nov 22

12 PM

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#5/#7 Illinois State

Normal, IL

VERMILLION, S.D. - The No. 7 South Dakota Coyotes shut out Southern Illinois 42-0 on Saturday afternoon in the DakotaDome. Both teams played nearly the entire game with backup quarterbacks after the starters were hurt in the first quarter. The Coyotes (7-1, 4-1 MVFC) returned two interceptions for touchdowns to blow open the game in the second half.

"I know what kind of guys we have in the locker room, and we're not 42 points worse than that team over there," SIU head coach Nick Hill said. "We have to continue to learn how to come out. The margin for error in this league is very, very small. If you don't come out and do the right thing in all phases of the game, things can get away from you, and we weren't able to really get anything going."

Heading into the game, the two starting quarterbacks--SIU's Sam Straub and South Dakota's Chris Streveler--were the top two passing quarterbacks in the Missouri Valley Football Conference. But the high-scoring duel didn't materialize. Streveler was one of the leading candidates for National Player of the Year, but he went down on the 10th play of South Dakota's opening drive. Steveler returned to the sidelines in pads, but backup Austin Simmons played the rest of the game for the Coyotes.

Simmons finished the final five yards of that opening drive to give USD a 7-0 lead. The Salukis (4-4, 2-3 MVFC) were called for 45 yards of pass interference penalties on the second drive, handing South Dakota a 14-0 lead. On the ensuing possession, Straub was hit out of bounds after throwing the ball away. He stayed in the game for one more possession before exiting.

"(The training staff) told me he has a broken bone in his hand or wrist," Hill said. "They told me he was out for the game and the X-rays were positive. I'll find out what that means as far as the year or if he can play padded up, but as a quarterback its tough, especially handing the ball off."

With both starters out, the rest of the first half turned into a defensive slugfest. South Dakota earned the only score after an SIU fumble gave the Coyotes a short field.

The Salukis turned to backup quarterback Tanner Hearn, a redshirt sophomore from Florida. Hearn flashed his big arm and made a number of impressive plays with his feet, too. He started the second half 5-for-5 with 90 yards, but the Salukis missed a field goal attempt. On the second drive of the second half, Hearn again led SIU into the red zone, but SIU went for it on 4th-and-goal and came away empty.

The Yotes put the game away with two defensive touchdowns. SIU moved into the red zone for a third time in the third quarter, but USD's Andrew Gray intercepted a pass and returned it 97 yards for a touchdown to give South Dakota a 28-0 lead. A fourth-quarter touchdown and a second pick-six set the final score at 42-0.

"I was proud of Tanner. He got thrown into a tough situation," Hill said. "I thought the confidence was there. He did some good things and made some tough throws. He led us and got us rolling a little bit. He just wasn't able to make that play. I thought he was confident out there. Even the throws he threw picks on, it wasn't because he was nervous and got picked. We have to rally around Tanner."

SIU was shut out for the first time in 198 contests, which dated back to the final game of the 2000 season. Southern's lone bright spot was its defense. South Dakota came into the game on pace to set a league record for total offense at more than 570 yards per game. The Salukis held USD to 280 yards of total offense.

"It's tough to swallow when you see your defense come out and give up one scoring drive in the second half," Hill said. "In the entire second half, we gave up 100 yards of offense. We played pretty good. If we were going to make a comeback, (the defense) gave us the ball back enough times."

UP NEXT

The Salukis will try to repeat recent history next week. Earlier this year, SIU lost 49-14 at South Dakota State and bounced back for a 42-7 win the following week at home. This time, the Salukis look to bounce back against Missouri State in Saluki Stadium. The November 4 game is set to kick off at 1 p.m. CT.

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