No. 11 South Dakota uses big plays to turn back Eastern Washington 41-23

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Sep. 12—VERMILLION, S.D. — In Eastern Washington's season opener two weeks ago, it was a four-minute span of football right before halftime that ultimately compromised the Eagles' chances to pick up a road victory against a Big Sky opponent.

On Saturday at the DakotaDome, it was a similar story.

And while much outside the last minute of the second quarter and the first five minutes of the third quarter still went poorly for the Eagles, it was that sequence in particular that doomed them in a 41-23 loss to the Coyotes in a matchup between the preeminent conferences in the FCS.

"(We were) not executing on little things," EWU senior defensive tackle Isaiah Perez said, "and on those big gains, that's what makes a difference."

Big gains were the story for the 11th-ranked Coyotes (3-0) of the Missouri Valley Football Conference, who scored touchdowns on plays covering 66, 72 and 48 yards during consecutive drives over a six-minute stretch before and after halftime. Those ballooned a 10-3 lead into a 31-3 advantage.

The tragedy of it, from Eastern's perspective, was that it nearly didn't occur at all: On a second-and-10 play late in the second quarter, redshirt freshman quarterback Austyn Modrzewski fumbled the ball into the hands of Perez — or so the play was originally ruled.

Had Perez secured the ball before it hit the ground, as he nearly did, the point would have been moot. But replay showed that Modrzewski's arm was going forward, and the play was ruled an incomplete pass.

On the next play, with less than a minute to go before halftime, Modrzewski dropped back and heaved a deep pass to Tennel Bryant, who caught it at the 19-yard line in stride and ran the rest of the way to the end zone for a 66-yard score.

"I should have made it," Perez said of the play. "It would have been a good play to make, but I had to move on to making the other plays."

Then, out of halftime, the Coyotes scored on a 72-yard touchdown run by the shifty Charles Pierre Jr. and then on another touchdown catch by Bryant, this one covering 48 yards, to burst ahead before even five minutes of the third quarter had elapsed.

Pierre Jr., a senior who surpassed 2,000 career rushing yards, finished with 138 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries.

"He's a difference maker, no matter who he faces," EWU head coach Aaron Best said of Pierre, "and we made him an even better difference maker at times today."

As an offense, South Dakota ran 67 plays and gained 517 yards; Eastern (1-2, 0-1 Big Sky) ran 69 and had 342 yards to show for them. The majority, all but 113, came in the second half, which the Eagles opened with back-to-back three-and-outs but closed with touchdown drives on three of their final five.

"We didn't change the plan at all (after halftime)," grad senior running back Malik Dotson said. "We've just got to execute at the highest clip possible; we didn't play our best today."

The Eagles never got any closer than three touchdowns after the Coyotes' initial second-half scoring burst. But they did have one stretch when a comeback looked at least feasible.

With Eastern trailing 31-3, redshirt junior quarterback Nate Bell finally got the Eagles moving offensively on a nine-play, 91-yard drive that he capped with an 11-yard touchdown pass to redshirt sophomore tight end Kayden Stuit, the first of his career.

On the ensuing kickoff, freshman kicker Morgan Dodson dribbled the ball 12 yards forward, where redshirt senior receiver Wesley Garrett waited and secured it for the successful onside kick. The Eagles were still down 31-10, but they had the ball, the momentum, and 16 minutes to work with.

That momentum was almost immediately erased when Bell's next pass was tipped and intercepted. The Coyotes scored five plays later to make it 38-10.

"We flipped the script a couple times. We stole possessions," the running back Dotson said. "But at the end of the day, on offense, we've got to do our thing when we flip those possessions because it doesn't really mean much when you flip a possession and go three-and-out. The offense has to do better."

Dotson finished with a season-high 52 rushing yards and ran for a two-yard touchdown late in the fourth quarter. Bell had 47 yards on the ground and 217 through the air — just 41 of which came in the first half — and he completed 20 of 36 passes.

Garrett led Eastern's depleted wide receiving corps with seven catches for a career-high 109 yards. He also had a 28-yard touchdown catch, his second of the year.

The Eagles will finish their nonconference schedule next weekend, when they visit the University of Washington for the first time since 2019.

"I am excited to flush this loss on Sunday and get ready for the University of Washington," Dotson said. "We're going to make major strides."

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