UNI defeats USD 27-16
The 100th Dakota Day hype appeared to be too much for the University of South Dakota football to handle.
South Dakota came into their homecoming game with high hopes of taking down Northern Iowa for the second year in a row and improving to 3-3 on the year. Unfortunately, UNI got the best of the Coyotes for the majority of the afternoon, taking down USD 30-16, dropping the Coyotes to 2-4 (0-2 Summit) on the year.
“They (UNI) are just a good football team. I’m not kidding you,” USD head coach Joe Glenn said. “I’d be surprised if they don’t go on and have a really good season.”
One of the headlines heading into the game was the return of quarterback Kevin Earl. Earl had been out since the season-opener against Oregon when he fractured his right thumb.
“It was awesome to be able to suit up and go out there again, especially since it was in front of such a big crowd and since it was such a big game for us,” Earl said. “It’s just tough handling a loss right now.”
The offense began the game scoring a touchdown on an 11 play, 76-yard scoring drive.
“The first drive we overcame penalties, and it felt great,” Earl said. “We had a lot of confidence at the time. But after that we were just in bad field position, and that’s the way the game kind of went.”
The Coyotes racked up eight penalties for 75 yards and Earl was sacked seven times.
“That was the difference,” Glenn said about the sacks.
Glenn said the Panthers front seven is as good of a group as they’ve played all year and just overpowered his team.
“This game was won in the trenches and their front seven was sensational,” Glenn said.
Earl finished the game with 260 yards passing and one touchdown. He also threw two interceptions and said he has a lot of room to grow after missing more than a month of the season.
“I thought I made some nice plays,” Earl said. “I just can’t turn the ball over.”
The Coyotes are now 2-4. They were 3-3 at this point last year.
“I don’t worry about being 2-4. I worry about losing to the 10,000 people that were there today,” Glenn said. “It’s so much fun during homecoming, and we wanted to win so bad. We had a chance, but it wasn’t meant to be.”
The Coyotes will look to win their first Missouri Valley game of the season next week when they travel to Missouri to take on Missouri State.
The Coyotes beat Missouri State 17-14 last year for their first ever win in the conference.
(Photo: University of South Dakota junior quarterback Kevin Earl scrambles with the ball during the Dakota Days football game Saturday afternoon in the DakotaDome versus the University of Northern Iowa. Chris Timmerman / The Volante)
