Football still winless on the road, falls to Western Illinois 24-10

The University of South Dakota football team dropped its third straight game Saturday, losing to Western Illinois 24-10.

Despite coming of a bye week and having almost two weeks to prepare for this week’s matchup, the Coyotes came out flat, falling to a 1-3 record in 2013.

USD’s defense held the Leathernecks scoreless for the first 15 minutes of the game, but WIU put together two scoring drives in the second quarter, giving them a  10-0 lead until USD finally got in the board with a Miles Bergner 27-yard field goal with 2:19 left in the half.

Junior quarterback Josh Vander Maten couldn’t get anything going through the air all afternoon; converting just 8 of 21 passes for 26 yards. He was relived by sophomore backup Kevin Earl with just under three minutes to go in the third quarter.

Earl seemed to spark the Coyotes, driving them down the field and getting their only touchdown of the day on a Jordan Roberts six-yard run.

Earl finished the game 7 of 13 for 88 yards. Besides his touchdown, Roberts had 10 carries for 34 yards. The Coyotes leading receiver was senior Adam Koch, who had 56 yards on three receptions.

On the day the Leathernecks rushed for 221 and one touchdown off of 42 carries, good enough for 5.3 yards per carry.

After Saturday, the Coyotes are still winless on the road and are yet to win a conference game in the Joe Glenn era, falling to 1-3 (0-1) on the season.

Glenn will now have a decision to make at the quarterback position heading into USD’s homecoming game against Missouri State next Saturday. Missouri State beat Illinois State 37-10 Saturday to go to 1-0 in the Missouri Valley Conference.

Glenn and the Coyotes now head into next week still in search of win No. 1 in the MVC. Kickoff will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at the DakotaDome.