MACOMB, Ill.—Carter Bell caught two long touchdowns, Nate Thomas ran for 110 yards and the South Dakota defense handled Western Illinois’ passing game en route to a 42-21 Coyote victory Saturday at Hansen Field.
It is the fourth win in five games for No. 21/23 South Dakota (6-3, 4-2 MVFC), who heads home for a rivalry matchup with No. 12/9 South Dakota State next Saturday inside the DakotaDome. Western Illinois was fresh off an upset of Illinois State last week, but fell to 2-8 overall and 2-5 in Valley play.
Bell caught touchdown passes of 91 and 60 yards, the former to start the scoring in the middle of the first quarter and the latter to tie the game at 14-14 five minutes into the second quarter. He caught five passes for a career-high 182 yards – all in the first half – and leads the team with five touchdown catches this season.
South Dakota reached the end zone on three consecutive possessions in the second quarter and took a 28-14 lead into halftime. It stayed that way until Nate Thomas barreled in from 4 yards out on the third play of the fourth quarter to make it 35-14. Western Illinois gambled and lost on 4th-and-1 from its own 14 with less than eight minutes left. That led to a 10-yard touchdown run by USD backup quarterback Johnathan Lewis that made it 42-14.
On the other side of the ball, the Coyote defense intercepted Connor Sampson twice and sacked him five times. Western Illinois had a 14-7 lead in the second quarter and forced a 3-and-out to quickly get the ball back. The Leathernecks got out to near midfield when Coyote linebacker Jack Cochrane made a diving catch to undercut a Sampson throw for the first turnover of the game. A slant to Bell 60 yards the other way on the first play after the interception tied the game at 14-14.
“Big play, big momentum play,” said South Dakota head coach Bob Nielson. “We talked about winning the turnover margin and we did that today. One of the key things was that the defense was able to put consistent pressure on the quarterback, making him feel uncomfortable and forcing him out of the pocket. He’s a really good football player, he showed that today, but we did a good job of keeping the ball in front of us and I think the difference in the game is we made more big plays than they did.”
Sampson entered as the 10th-leading passer in the FCS at nearly 300 yards per game. He finished with 362 yards and a pair of touchdowns, but 183 of those yards came in the fourth quarter when the game was out of reach and he needed 51 attempts to get there. Dennis Houston, the second-leading receiver in the FCS, had nine catches for 81 yards. Four of his nine catches came in the fourth quarter.
Five different Coyotes sacked Sampson including linebacker Jacob Matthew and defensive tackle Nick Gaes who got their team-leading sixth sacks of the season. Matthew led South Dakota with seven tackles in the game, two in the backfield.
Tre Thomas intercepted Samson in Coyote territory to stop the first drive of the second half. South Dakota attempted just six passes in the second half, eventually turning to Thomas and a ground game that totaled 220 yards in the contest compared to just 70 for Western Illinois. Thomas needed just 11 carries to get his second 100-yard game of the season. Highlighting the effort was a 46-yard run on the first play of the fourth quarter in which he seemingly dragged a Leatherneck within the entire way. Two plays later, Thomas was in the end zone for the fourth time this season.
Carson Camp, who was injured in the prior game two weeks ago and did not return, started and played well against the Leathernecks. He completed 13-of-21 passes for 246 yards. His 91-yard connection with Bell was an out pass to the right where Bell beat his defender and had nothing but daylight in front of him. All but 10 of Camp’s yards came in the first half.
South Dakota is one of four teams in the Valley with just two conference losses. North Dakota State, despite a 27-19 setback at South Dakota State Saturday, leads atop the standings at 5-1 with two weeks to play. USD and NDSU meet on the final week of the regular season.
