Missouri Valley Football Conference Week 3 Review

On By Kent Schmidt
Delaware quarterback Pat Kehoe is sacked by North Dakota State’s Matt Biegler (98) and Derek Tuszka in the first quarter at Delaware Stadium Saturday (Photo: WILLIAM BRETZGER, DELAWARE NEWS JOURNAL)

The Missouri Valley this week had another good week with its nine out-of-conference games. There were nine games with Northern Iowa being off this past week. Overall, the league went 6-3 against its competition.

The top game this week as top ranked North Dakota State visiting the CAA’s Delaware, who were also ranked in the Top 25. The Bison held the Blue Hens to less than 100 yards of total offense through the first three quarters and cruised to a 47-22 victory. What is scary to the rest of the league and all of FCS with NDSU is that this team is very young yet still performing at a very high level.

Indiana State rebounded from a shocking loss to Dayton in Week 2 to defeat the OVC’s Eastern Kentucky to capture its first victory of the season. The Sycamores scored nine points in the fourth quarter to secure a 19-7 victory. The Indiana State defense was stout throughout, holding the Colonels to 248 total yards on offense and just 4-of-15 on third down.

Southern Illinois–fresh off its FBS win over UMass–won its home opener against another OVC team in Tennessee-Martin. The Salukis lost QB Stone Labanowitz on the second play of their first possession and didn’t fully regroup until the second quarter to trail 14-0. Once SIU regrouped, the Salukis ran off 28 straight points for the vicory. , SIU was highlighted with RBs Javon Williams, Jr.(138 yards) and D.J. Davis (101 yards) in shredding the UT Martin defense.

Illinois State scored on its first drive of the game and never looked back, as the Redbirds defeated Eastern Illinois 21-3 on the road to retain possession of the Mid-America Classic trophy in the 108th meeting between the two squads. RB James Robinson was the offensive star as he finished the game with 146 yards and scored all three Redbird touchdowns, which tied his career high in a game.

Elsewhere, Youngstown State and South Dakota State defeated Duquesne and Drake at home easily.

The biggest loss of the week in the conference was South Dakota’s shootout loss to the Southland’s Houston Baptist. The two teams combined had 1,238 yards of total offense. The Coyotes lost when it let in a late 2-point conversion by Houston Baptist that gave the Huskies the 53-52 victory.

South Dakota remained winless as did Western Illinois in its home close loss to Top 25 ranked Montana State. Missouri State is the third winless team in the league after is blowout loss at FBS Tulane.

See the ful recaps of each game in the score, as well as video highlights from each game below.

North Dakota State 47 Delaware 22 (Newark, Del.)

Indiana State 19 Eastern Kentucky 7 (Terre Haute, Ind.)

South Dakota State 38 Drake 10 (Brookings, S.D.)

Youngstown State 34 Duquesne 14 (Youngstown, Ohio)

Houston Baptist 53 South Dakota 52 (Vermillion, S.D.)

Illinois State 21 Eastern Illinois 3 (Charleston, Ill.)

Montana State 23 Western Illinois 14 (Macomb, Ill.)

Southern Illinois 28 UT Martin 14 (Carbondale, Ill.)

Tulane 58 Missouri State 6 (New Orleans, La.)

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