‘Gritty effort’ helps Illinois State slip past South Dakota to earn homecoming victory | Local Sports
Wenkers Wright had the speed and power. But Zack Annexstad had deception on his side.
Annexstad kept the football on third-and-one instead of handing it to Wright and picked up the key first down that allowed Illinois State to run out the clock on a hard-fought 12-10 Missouri Valley Football Conference victory over South Dakota before a homecoming crowd of 9,302 Saturday at Hancock Stadium.
“As a quarterback, I want the ball in my hands every single chance I get. I expect to do good things with the ball in my hands,” Annexstad said. “It was a designed run for Wenkers. My read crashed down and I did what I did and got the first down.”
Winning its second straight nailbiter, ISU advanced to 4-2 overall and 2-1 in the Valley.
“It was really a gritty effort,” said Redbirds coach Brock Spack. “You train for games like this. In the Missouri Valley, this is what you get almost every weekend. You really have to have a well-conditioned team. We fought through a lot of adversity and found a way to win against what I thought was a very good team.”
South Dakota (1-5, 0-3) led 10-6 before ISU managed its only touchdown of the afternoon. The visitors’ previous losses came to the top three ranked teams in FCS and FBS nationally ranked Kansas State.
A 41-yard Annexstad pass to a well-covered Jerome Buckner zoomed the Redbirds down to the Coyotes 3 in the third quarter.
“He made a really nice catch,” Annexstad said. “I had a lot of guys make really nice catches for me today. I have a lot of really good players around me, and I’ll try to keep getting them the ball when I can.”
Two Wright plunges moved the ball to the 1 before Annexstad lofted what he called a “jump shot” pass over several South Dakota defenders to tight end Tanner Taula for a touchdown at the 3:28 mark of the third quarter.
“I didn’t do the best job getting out clean,” said Taula of giving the appearance of blocking at the line before releasing. “I kind of got bounced around by some (line)backers, but Zack was able to give me a good ball. I couldn’t (see Annexstad). I was looking, hopefully the ball is coming somewhere.”
Ian Wagner’s extra point was wide right and the Redbirds were in danger of a field goal beating them with a 12-10 edge.
Defense holds strong
The Redbird defense allowed the Coyotes 249 yards of total offense. Normal West High School graduate Carson Camp completed 9 of 16 passes for 117 yards and had a net of zero yards rushing on seven carries.
“The big thing going into this game was to control him because he’s a dynamic player and he can scramble real well,” ISU linebacker Kenton Wilhoit said. “I do think we did a good job keeping him inside the pocket and not letting him run around on us.”
ISU ran 15 more plays from scrimmage (65-50) and outgained South Dakota by 15 yards with 264.
“We knew if we just played with great effort they wouldn’t really be able to drive the ball on us,” said Wilhoit. “We really rallied around each other and were all ready to embrace the adversity we faced today.”
Cornerback Deandre Lamont topped the Redbirds with nine tackles. Safety Dillon Gearhart and Wilhoit chipped in seven apiece in a game without turnovers.
“That was a beautiful game if you like defense, I guess. Neither team moved the ball with a lot of efficiency,” Spack said. “We leaned on the defense today.”
Feeding Wright
Wright, who left last week’s win over Northern Iowa with a hamstring issue, received just four first-half carries. He finished with a team-high 15 for 53 yards.
“We just didn’t know what we had in him,” said Spack. “Sam Ojuri, our running backs coach, felt he was much better today than he has been all week. I was glad to see him fight through it. He was a lot better than I thought he would be today.”
Wagner converts twice
Wagner put all six ISU points on the scoreboard in the first half with a pair of field goals.
Wagner connected from 37 yards out when the initial Redbirds’ drive penetrated as far as the South Dakota 18. The redshirt freshman punched a 45-yarder through the wind on the final snap of the second quarter.
Coyotes’ points
South Dakota took a 7-3 lead in the second quarter on a 5-yard touchdown run by Shomari Lawrence.
The Coyotes carried a 7-6 margin into halftime and led 10-6 after a 40-yard third-quarter field goal by Eddie Ogamba.
Ogamba also missed a 42-yard field goal attempt early in the fourth quarter.
Close but chains stay put
South Dakota decided to punt three times in the first half on fourth-and-1.
All three occasions came in Coyotes’ territory at the 20, 42 and 41.
