Southwest Minnesota State University visited Upper Iowa's Harms-Eischeid Stadium on Saturday night with both football squads looking to seize their first victory of 2019. The Mustangs outlasted the Peacocks in a 35-28 NSIC South Division shootout despite being in the disadvantage in many stat categories. But the one thing that SMSU did better than UIU was convert turnovers into points on the scoreboard.
Four of the Mustang's five touchdowns on the night followed a turnover by the Peacocks. Upper Iowa threw an interception on just their third play and SMSU returned the pick for the game's opening score. UIU also turned the ball over on downs twice and fumbled a handoff exchange; all three led to touchdowns on the visitor's ensuing possession.
After the defensive score by the Mustangs, Upper Iowa laid out an 18-play, 88-yard drive that ate up 8:23 of game clock and resulted in a
Myles Herrera to
Bralin Simon touchdown pass that tied the game at 7-7 with just under four minutes to play in the first quarter. Freshman Levon Bellemy carried the ball 13 times on the drive and racked up four first downs for UIU.
Both teams struggled to move the ball in the second quarter and it looked like the game would go to the break tied, but a personal foul on UIU after a 12-yard run, gave SMSU hope of a late score. Four plays later, highlighted by a Boyer Bouman to Luke Narveson 28-yard connection, the Mustangs were just two yards shy of the endzone. SMSU put the ball over the goal line and took the 14-7 lead into the locker room as UIU's final drive of the half ran out of time as the Peacocks neared the red zone.
Midway through the third quarter, UIU took a shot on fourth down from midfield, but the Peacocks did not make the yard to gain and turned the ball over. Max Simmons nearly matched SMSU's season total in rushing coming into the game, 55 yards, on the next play racing 51 yards for a touchdown and a 21-7 lead for the Mustangs.
Upper Iowa stayed within striking distance thanks to an 8-play, 77-yard drive highlighted by two big catches by
Alexander Stevens, one for 14 yards and one for 38 yards to the down the sideline and into the end zone to cut the margin to 21-14.
Momentum began to swing toward Upper Iowa with the home team forcing their only turnover of the game when
Daniel Ruffin Jr. intercepted a SMSU pass near midfield as the third quarter clock expired. But on the first play of the fourth quarter the Peacocks didn't execute a handoff and the ball hit the turf only to be gobbled up by Gary Barnes of SMSU. Ten plays later, the Mustangs had pushed their lead back to two scores, 28-14, thanks to a 3-yard run by Duce Reynolds.
On UIU's next possession,
Tre'dious Thomas set up UIU with a 26-yard return and Herrera found Stevens again for a 41-yard touchdown to pull Upper Iowa back within seven points, 28-21. The Peacock defense forced a punt and took over at their own 15-yard line with just over four minutes to play. Unfortunately, the drive went nowhere and after UIU was forced to go for it on fourth down, the Mustangs took over at the 14-yard line. One play later Reynolds got in for his second score of the night putting a dagger in UIU's chances.
The Peacocks kept fighting as time wound down and Herrera engineered his fourth scoring drive of the night and capped it off with his fourth touchdown pass of the night. The freshman quarterback found senior wideout
Brandyn Tulloch from 13 yards away for the score with just 14 seconds to play.
The Peacock onside kick was a good one, but neither team could gather it in before it went out of bounds and allowed the Mustangs to take a knee once and end the game.
Stats of the Game…
- UIU claimed massive advantages in first downs (27-17), rushing yards (236-177), passing yards (233-160), total offense (469-337) and time of possession (35:17-24:43).
- SMSU scored three of their touchdowns on single-play drives.
- Upper Iowa converted on 7 of 17 third down tries and 4 of 6 fourth down attempts.
- S
- MSU recorded 3 sacks to UIU's 0.
- Upper Iowa ran 82 plays, while SMSU only ran 52.
Peacocks of the Game…
Quotables…
Up Next… The Peacocks welcome the Wolves of Northern State University next Saturday, Oct. 5 at 3 p.m. The football game is one of the highlights of UIU's Homecoming Weekend, which kicks off later this week. Northern State is 2-2 on the season with wins over Minot State in week two and St. Cloud State early today.
