Western Illinois tops Coyotes 44-29
It’s been one long season for the Coyote football team. If Saturday’s game meant anything, it’s that it’ll be even longer.
South Dakota, sitting in last place in the Missouri Valley Football Conference, hosted the Western Illinois Leathernecks.
Western Illinois came into the game with the second worst record in the conference.
The Leathernecks walked out of the DakotaDome with a 44-29 victory, dropping the Coyotes record to 2-8 and 0-6 in the conference.
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The loss was the 10th consecutive conference loss for head coach Joe Glenn’s team.
“It’s just really disappointing. Really disappointing,” Glenn said following the game.
Sophomore linebacker Joh Wessel said it was pretty easy to see why Western Illinois won the game.
“They made more plays than we did today, and in the end that’s what the game is about,” Wessel said.
USD fell 14-0 in the first nine minutes of the game, and it looked like the early signs of a blowout. But they responded with three consecutive touchdowns of their own, taking a 20-14 lead with 5:28 remaining in the second quarter.
“Our offense looked great. We were putting points on the board and scored back-to-back-to-back,” said junior wide receiver Eric Shufford. “We were down 14-0 and we responded.”
But signs of a long season showed on the ensuing extra point. The Leathernecks blocked Miles Bergner’s point after and returned it for two points.
The Coyotes would go into halftime tied at 23.
The Leathernecks got the ball to open the second half and the Coyotes responded with a quick stop.
However, Jordan Roberts fumbled on the second play of the drive and Western Illinois responded with a touchdown to take a seven point lead.
“That one was the most gut-wrenching,” Glenn said. “It didn’t kill us, because we came back from more in the first half, but it was probably the turning point.”
The biggest storyline in the second half was converting on the opponents side of the field. USD was forced to kick two field goals, while Western Illinois punched in three touchdowns.
(Photo Gallery: Chris Timmerman / The Volante)
At one point the Coyotes trailed by seven and got into the Leatherneck redzone with just under five minutes to go in the third quarter. They were forced to kick a field goal to make it a 30-26 game.
It was the last chance they would have to tie up the game.
“It was tough that we couldn’t convert,” said quarterback Kevin Earl. “It probably would have made a difference if we put six points on the board instead of three.”
Bergner would make another field goal in the fourth quarter to improve to 16/16 on the year, which is a school record. But that was about it for the Coyotes in the final quarter.
Shufford said the team’s mindset is that they expect to win every game – they expect to be great – and that the team would have liked to have a few plays back.
But he still thought the group played pretty well.
“I don’t think we played bad at all. They just had the ball bounce their way and they were able to make a few more plays than us,” Shufford said. “But we don’t like to make excuses. We have to make more plays.”
Wessel, who had 1.5 sacks and nine tackles in the game, said despite getting occasional pressure on the quarterback, giving up 44 points was completely unacceptable.
“It’s nice to look and see that we got some pressure, but we gave up 44 points and you cant do that,” Wessel said. “You can’t win games in the Missouri Valley Football Conference and give up 44 points.”
Wessel added that even though the team dropped their sixth straight game, they will continue fighting as hard as they can.
“It hurts. We’ve been close a lot of times. But We’ll keep fighting,” Wessel said. “We’ve got to figure it out. We’ve got two games left and we’re not quitting.”
(Photo: Sophomore fullback Drew Potter is pursued by three Western Illinois defenders Nov. 8 in the DakotaDome. The Coyotes fell to the Leathernecks 44-29 bringing their record to 2-8. Chris Timmerman / The Volante)
