Box Score

VERMILLION, S.D. – Missouri S&T's football team took a step up in competition to close out the 2011 campaign Saturday and after cutting into an early 24-point South Dakota lead, ended up on the losing end of a 48-14 decision at the DakotaDome.

The Coyotes, a member of NCAA Division I's Football Championship Subdivision and ranked No. 24 in that division, jumped on the Miners right from the outset by scoring 24 unanswered points in the first quarter.  USD drove 55 yards on its opening series for a touchdown, capped by a four-yard scoring run by Marcus Sims.

That scoring march was followed by a drives that ended with a 29-yard field goal by Kevin Robb, a 49-yard touchdown pass from Dante Warren to Will Powell and a 26-yard scoring run by Warren with 1:41 left in the opening quarter.

S&T got on the scoreboard late in the first quarter with an impressive 85-yard drive.  Quarterback Steve Watson (Berkeley, Ill./Walther Lutheran) completed a 25-yard pass to Joseph Hyman (Los Angeles, Calif./Palisades) on third-and-14 to keep the drive going, then ran 14 yards himself moments later to set up Curterris Golden (Chicago, Ill./John Hope)'s two-yard touchdown run with 1:47 to play in the half.

The Miners got the ball back before halftime and immediately got a 57-yard completion from Watson to Smook Thomas (Quincy, Fla./East Gadsden) to get to the USD 17-yard line.  After Watson completed another pass to Thomas on third down, Hyman caught a three-yard scoring pass with 14 seconds remaining to draw the Miners to within 10 at 24-14.

However, a short kickoff and a 24-yard return by Kyle Wheeler gave Robb a chance to try a long field goal before the break, which he made from 51 yards to dive USD a 13-point lead at the break.

The Coyotes added onto their lead with an 83-yard drive in the early stages of the third quarter that culminated when Powell caught a 24-yard touchdown pass from Warren.  Later in the third period, Chris Ganious scored on an 11-yard run and Dustin Nowotny caught a 14-yard touchdown pass to add to the Coyotes' advantage.

After putting over 250 yards on the board in the first half of play, the Miner offense was held in check in the final 30 minutes and finished the afternoon with 321 yards to 547 for the Coyotes.

Watson completed 16-of-27 passes for 196 yards in his final game for the Miners, with Thomas catching seven of the passes for 101 yards.  S&T ran for 115 yards in the game; Ryan Taylor (Indianapolis, Ind./Pike) led the ground game with 43 yards on eight carries.

Warren accounted for 346 yards of total offense for South Dakota (6-4), completing 17-of-22 passes for 288 yards and running for another 58.  The Coyotes finished with 230 yards on the ground as a team and threw for 317.

Sophomore linebacker Chris Emesih (Houston, Texas/Westfield) led the Miners with 13 tackles and senior free safety Hilton Dawson (Compton, Calif./) made nine stops for S&T.

The Miners finished the 2011 season with a record of 6-5, their first winning season since 2008.