Missouri Valley Football Conference Week 2 Review

Photo from UMass Football Blog

The Missouri Valley Football Conference as a whole had a much better week than in Week 1 during this past Week 2. The league as a whole went 6-3 with one of the highlight wins being Southern Illinois’ win at FBS Massachusetts. Two of the losses were to FBS teams with Western Illinois falling at Colorado State and South Dakota.

The one negative loss came with Indiana State falling to the Pioneer League’s Dayton at home in Terre Haute.

Elsewhere, NDSU, Illinois State, UNI, Youngstown State, and SDSU won easily each in their home openers.

Look below for both a recap in the score and video highlights from each game this week.

North Dakota State 38 North Dakota 7 (Fargo, N.D.)

UND and NDSU met this week for the first time in four years — the final non-conference matchup before the Fighting Hawks are officially in the Missouri Valley Football Conference. NDSU freshman quarterback Trey Lance ran for 95 yards, passed for 162 yards and scored four total touchdowns, while the Bison won easily 38-7 in front of 18,923 — the largest Fargodome crowd since 2015.

 

Southern Illinois 45 UMass 20 (Amherst, Mass.)

Javon Williams Jr. had three touchdowns in the SIU 45-20 victory over FBS UMass. The first was where he turned a pass in the left flat into an 85 yard touchdown, and broke two tackles on the way to another 64 yard score. Williams’ 64 yard score helped the Salukis go up 24-13 early in the third quarter, and the redshirt freshman added a 3 yard run in the third quarter to seal the victory. This was the first time SIU has beaten an FBS team since upsetting Northern Illinois in 2007. Back then, it was current SIU football coach Nick Hill as signal caller.

 

Northern Iowa 34 Southern Utah 14 (Cedar Falls, Iowa)

Northern Iowa’s defense led the way in Saturday afternoon’s home-opener against Southern Utah, holding the Thunderbirds to 227 yards on 77 plays for a 34-14 win, Coach Mark Farley’s 150th of his career. UNI quarterback Will McElvain took another step forward Saturday. The redshirt freshman completed 17 of 25 passes for 262 yards and three touchdowns.

 

South Dakota State 38 Long Island 3 (Brookings, S.D.)

South Dakota State won its home opener in defeating Division I newcomer Long Island 38-3. The Jackrabbits were playing without quarterback J’Bore Gibbs, and the offense sputtered in his absence, totaling just 324 yards as they struggled early to gain separation from a team that is transitioning from Division II and is replacing 16 starters from that team. Junior Kanin Nelson got the start at quarterback for the Jacks and limited mistakes, managed the offense and made plays when the defense gave him chances.

 

Oklahoma 70 South Dakota 14 (Norman, Okla.)

Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts passed for 259 yards and three scores in a little more than one half of work to lead the Sooners to a 70-14 win over South Dakota. South Dakota’s scores came in the third quarter from the arm of QB Autin Simmons. He connected with Kody Case on a 23-yard strike with 5:46 left in the frame. Simmons hit Caleb Vander Esch with a 27-yard strike on 4th-and-12 the next time USD had it.

 

Dayton 42 Indiana State 35 (Terre Haute, Ind.)

Youngstown State 54 Howard 28 (Youngstown, Ohio)

Youngstown State rushed for 454 yards and scored six touchdowns on the ground in a 54-28 victory over Howard. The Penguins finished the game with 640 yards of total offense, the the sixth most in program history, while the 454 yards compiled on the ground was the fourth most all-time. For the game, Braxton Chapman finished with 132 yards and a score on eight carries, London Pearson ran for 126 yards and score on six carries, Christian Turner carried the ball six times for 86 yards with a score and Joe Alessi had 70 yards on eight carries with a pair of touchdowns.

 

Colorado State 38 Western Illinois 13 (Fort Collins, Colo.)

Western Illinois football team scored half its points on the foot of the senior kicker Saturday (Sept. 7) in a 38-13 setback to Colorado State. Erickson finished the matchup with a career-high seven points on a pair of field goals and a PAT, while QB Conner Sampson recorded his first collegiate touchdown.

 

Illinois State 42 Morehead State 14 (Normal, Ill.)

The Redbirds tallied nearly 500 yards of total offense in a 42-14 victory over Morehead State. RB James Robinson scored three touchdowns, which tied a career high for the senior All-American. He averaged 7.7 yards per carry in the blowout win.