Football falls to USF, miss playoffs

It has been a disappointing season to say the least for the Minnesota State football team (5-4), a squad who has had so much recent success that being one game over .500 is still not enough. The Mavericks dropped their ninth game of the season to Sioux Falls 45-35 with Southwest Minnesota State next up on the schedule.

It was a disappointing day right off the bat for the Mavs, giving up a touchdown within the first four minutes of the game in the form of a seven yard run by Sioux Falls running back Landon Freeman. MSU was able to respond quickly with a rushing touchdown of their own thanks to Charles Coleman, but from there on out, the Mavericks were on rout watch.

The Cougars seemed to have everything figured out by the second quarter, where they tallied 24 unanswered points to put themselves up 31-7 at halftime. The hole could not have been much bigger for the Mavs to dig themselves out of, but they gave it their all.

Despite scoring four touchdowns in the second half, it was never enough to catch up to the Cougars insane running attack. Sioux Falls had a decent day through the air but were only able to capitalize with one touchdown while also throwing an interception.

The rushing attack on the other hand was completely unstoppable. The Cougars rushed for 365 yards and five touchdowns in their exposing of Minnesota State’s front seven.

Freeman was the star of the day for the Cougars, rushing for 213 yards and four touchdowns on his own while only carrying the ball 10 times. Junior Thuro Reisdorfer was the main ball carrier for Sioux Falls, rushing 21 times for 149 yards and a touchdown, but Freeman came off the sideline with an insane level of explosiveness which granted him 21.3 yards per carry.

Minnesota State mainly used senior quarterback JD Ekowa in this one, and he did quite well, throwing for 264 yards and two touchdowns with one interception. 

The MSU receiving corps benefited immensely, seeing junior Jalen Sample and senior Parker Gloudemans both atop 100 yards.

Neither receiver was able to find the endzone, but senior Nyles Williams made up for it himself with two receiving touchdowns of his own.