The Peacock football team continues to improve on offense as the young season moves along, but the defense has fired on all cylinders through the first three games. Upper Iowa held their guests, the Golden Eagles of the University of Minnesota Crookston, to just a field goal in UIU's 45-3 victory on Saturday in Fayette. The win improved UIU's record to 3-0, while UMC fell to 0-3. The Peacocks are now 12-3 in their last fifteen games against the NSIC North Division and have won nine straight NSIC cross-division games. UIU also remained undefeated (8-0) against the Golden Eagles.
The Upper Iowa defense has allowed only five scoring drives and 25 points through the first three games against Northern State University, the University of Mary and Minnesota Crookston. On Saturday, the Peacocks held the Golden Eagles to negative 3 yards rushing on 25 attempts and 207 yards in the air. The home team came up with a punt block for a touchdown (both by
Jordan Rommes), a punt return touchdown by
Tate Thompson, interceptions by
Darius Cohen and
Matt Sharp, sacks by
Jevell Rollins,
Derek Hurschman and
Isaac Freese and
Jesse Hynek combined for one, and 11 Peacocks that combined for the team's 11 tackles for loss.
While the defense was controlling their guests, the Peacock offense took off late in the first quarter when quarterback
Dimitri Morales found
Jalen Amis over the middle taking advantage of broken coverage to score an easy 16-yard touchdown for a 7-0 lead. The scoring play capped off a 10-play, 80-yard drive. Just a little more than a minute later, Rommes broke through to block the Golden Eagles punt and then picked it up for a touchdown to put the home team ahead 14-0. Morales crossed the goal line from 5 yards out and
Brady Beuschel added a 23 yard field goal to put the Peacocks ahead 24-0 heading to the halftime break.
Derrick Portis gave Upper Iowa's running game life in the third quarter. With Portis making defenders miss and picking big chunks of yards, Upper Iowa then gave the ball to another freshman runner in the third quarter.
Ryan Parmely took the ball on first and goal from the six-yard line and scored a touchdown on his first collegiate carry to push UIU's lead to 31-0.
Tate Thompson's 44-yard punt return came late in the third quarter to move UIU ahead 38-0. Thompson made the first two Golden Eagles miss and then took advantage of great blocks by
Alex Wahl and
Jevell Rollins.
Minnesota Crookston finally got on the board at the beginning of the fourth quarter with a 37-yard field goal by Mike Maw.
After Sharp's interception in the fourth quarter, Morales added his third rushing touchdown of the season on a 21-yard scamper and dive into the endzone for the game's final score and a 45-3 victory for Upper Iowa.
While the UIU defense held their guests to just 204 yards of total offense, the Peacock offense picked up a balanced 434 yards with 214 on the ground and 220 in the air.
The defense was led by Wahl's 9 tackles (4 solo, 1 for loss), Rollins' 6 tackles (5 solo, 2 for loss, 1 sack) and Stephen's 6 tackles (2 solo, 1.5 for loss). Eight other Peacocks had at least four tackles on the night.
Morales threw for 219 yards of 25 of 37 attempts with one touchdown and added 28 yards of rushing and two touchdowns on 8 carries. Portis ran 7 times for 68 yards with a long of 25 and added 3 catches for 14 yards, while
Alex VanGerpen picked up 51 yards on 8 carries.
Jalen Amis pulled down 10 passes for 67 yards and one score, while
Jarred Edmonds had 5 catches for 43 yards and
Cameron Lee snagged 3 balls for 38 yards.
The Peacocks will travel to Duluth, Minn. next Saturday for their final NSIC cross-division game of the 2015 season. Upper Iowa will line up against the University of Minnesota Duluth, a perennial national power, at 6:05 p.m. The Bulldogs are 1-2 this season, but the two losses have come by a combined seven points to Minnesota State University, Mankato (#1) and the University of Sioux Falls (#12).
