Late drive comes up short in Saluki Football's 14-7 loss to South Dakota

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#21/#15 South Dakota

Carbondale, IL

CARBONDALE, Ill. — Southern Illinois had four cracks at the end zone from the five yard-line in the final minute of play, but could not convert, as South Dakota held on for a 14-7 victory at Saluki Stadium in the SIU's annual Blackout Cancer game.

Trailing by a touchdown, the No. 10-ranked Salukis (6-3, 3-3) had a golden opportunity to tie or take the lead after D'Ante' Cox made a 27-yard, circus catch, while lying on his back at the USD 5 with 1:10 remaining in the game.

On first-and-goal, running back Ro Elliott picked up three yards. On second-and-goal, quarterback Nic Baker threw a fade route to Cox in the right corner of the end zone. He leaped high to make the catch, and his back appeared to land in bounds, but officials ruled he did not have possession of the ball before sliding out of bounds.

On third-and-goal, Baker threw high on a pass intended for Izaiah Hartrup over the middle. On fourth down, Baker's pass intended for Cox was deflected by defensive end Brendan Webb and picked off by teammate Blake Holden to end the game.

In a frustrating day for the offense, SIU out-gained the No. 9-ranked Coyotes (7-2, 5-1) by a 332-196 margin, but points were elusive.

"Could use a lot of words to describe how we're feeling — disappointed, frustrated — just hard to lose a game like that," said SIU head coach Nick Hill. "Like I told our guys in the locker room, if you're going be frustrated, if fans are going to be frustrated — you don't have to look any further than right here to myself. I'm in charge of that side of the ball. We're playing winning defense, and for right now, we're just not putting enough points on the board for a variety of reasons."

Southern's opening drive looked promising, as Baker completed passes to Vinson Davis III for gains of 11 and 23 yards, but on 4th-and-1 at the USD 31, Baker was stuffed for no gain on a quarterback sneak.

There were other potential scoring drives into USD territory that failed to yield points, including a missed 41-yard field goal by Thomas Burks in the third quarter.

Meanwhile, South Dakota made the most of its only two trips into SIU territory, scoring touchdowns in the first and fourth quarters on drives of 66 and 49 yards.

"They did a nice job of scoring just enough and flipping the field — their punter did a nice job and we had to go the length of the field the majority of the time" Hill said.

Trailing, 14-0, with 6:38 left in the game, Baker led the offense on a gutsy, 13-play, 84-yard touchdown drive. He converted a 4th-and-5 at the SIU 21 with a 14-yard pass to Davis III. Later, he found Davis III for 15 yards on a do-or-die 4th-and-10 completion. Baker capped the drive with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Aidan Quinn.

After SIU's defense forced a 3-and-out, the Salukis started their final possession at their own 47 with 2:04 remaining. Besides Cox's acrobatic catch, Izaiah Hartrup made a clutch, 25-yard reception on 2nd-and-18 that kept the drive alive.

Baker completed 16-of-35 passes for 227 yards, but was sacked a season-high seven times. The running game netted 105 yards, led by Ro Elliott's 57 yards in his first game back from injury, but he had the team's longest run of just nine yards.

In its three conference losses, SIU has totaled 20 points, and Hill took responsibility for the lack of scoring output.

"My feelings are disappointed in myself," he said. "The season's coming down to the end. All I know is to keep working and trying to figure things out — what we do well, and how can we provide a spark here in tough games to put up more points than that."

The Salukis need at least one more win to feel good about their playoff chances as they head into the home stretch with a trip to perennial powerhouse North Dakota State, before wrapping the regular season at home on Nov. 18 versus Indiana State.

"If we want to win big games, we have to produce (points)," Hill concluded.

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