Going into a week five bye, the Bulldogs looked to secure a difficult win on the road. On Saturday, the Drake men’s football team took on the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, South Dakota.
The Coyotes started the first quarter with the first touchdown on their home field. This single touchdown ruled the game until the second quarter, as the Bulldogs went scoreless.
In the second quarter, South Dakota scored three touchdowns, with the last coming with just 55 seconds left before going into the locker room. The Bulldogs were able to put a touchdown on the board from a one-yard run by first-year quarterback Logan Inagawa. After two quarters of play, the score at halftime was 28-7 Coyotes.
“I thought we did some good things, but we need to do a better job of putting our guys in good positions,” head coach Joe Woodley said. “We just really couldn’t get anything going offensively in the first half.”
The third quarter brought more pressure from the Coyotes, who managed to score two more touchdowns despite defensive efforts by the Bulldogs. This quarter left much to be desired for Bulldog fans, but Woodley knew the competition was high.
“Credit to [South Dakota], we played a really good football team, and things were clicking for them,” Woodley said.
The fourth quarter is when the fire lit up under the Bulldogs, with Inagawa scoring another running touchdown before sophomore tight end Chase Schutty secured a six-yard pass from Inagawa for a 42-21 final score. Despite the two touchdowns not changing the overall outcome of the game, the team had many powerful points that showed promise going into conference play in October.
Some key takeaways from the game were Inagawa’s 164 passing yards and a touchdown thrown. He also had two of his own rushing touchdowns with an average of 3.8 yards per play as the only quarterback to see the field for the Bulldogs during the game. Senior wide receiver Taj Hughes also had 25 yards for the game to help the offense with senior tight end Tyler Nansel’s 30 yards.
For the defense, left back senior Sean Allison had seven tackles for the game, along with fellow senior J.R. Flood, who racked up 10 tackles in an effort to help the Bulldogs. Sophomore defensive back Garrison Codde also secured seven tackles for the Bulldogs.
Although Drake walked away with a loss, the team knows that there is always room to grow, and this will impact them going into the next game.
“I’m proud of how our team fought, but unfortunately, we fell short,” senior Duke Frye said. “We’re going into this bye week to use it as an opportunity to improve for the rest of the season.”
The Bulldogs will return home for Parents and Family weekend on Oct. 4, against Valparaiso University in Drake Stadium. The game will feature performances by the Drake dance team, cheer team and the marching band, who will put on a special halftime show to celebrate Bulldog families on campus.
