DES MOINES, Iowa - A 2-yard touchdown leap by Conley Wilkins (Overland Park, Kan.) ended more than 45 minutes of scoreless football as Drake University defeated visiting Truman State in overtime, 13-7, Saturday night at Drake Stadium in a defensive showcase.
“I'm so proud of how our defense played, they kept us in it from beginning-to-end,” said Drake head coach Rick Fox. “Offensively we hung in there. No one got frustrated, we figured it out and got it done in the overtime.”
Truman State (0-1) started the extra period on offense and the Drake (1-1) defense made plays – as it had all night – stopping TSU on the Drake 20-yard line and forcing a 37-yard field goal attempt. The kick knuckled through the line of scrimmage, but was well short and off the mark to set up Drake's overtime push.
Needing just a field goal to win, Drake's offense stayed conservative and put the ball in Wilkins' hands for a gain of five combined yards on his first two carries. Quarterback Andy Rice (Stevens Point, Wis.) then dropped back and found Eric Saubert (Hoffman Estates, Ill.) 17 yards down field to give Drake first down and goal on the 3-yard line. Two plays later, Wilkins jumped over the pile at the line of scrimmage to break the tie and secure head coach Rick Fox's first win at Drake.
Wilkins finished the game with 88 yards on 21 carries while T.J. James (Des Moines, Iowa) saw his first action in two seasons with 64 yards on 10 carries, including a 43-yard sprint. Saubert led the receiving corps again with 79 yards on eight catches as the Drake offense put up 317 yards of offense.
Truman State was led on offense by 92 rushing yards from Garrett White and 148 passing yards from Devonte Graham.
Despite the offense putting points on the board, Drake's defense and special teams were the stars of the win. The defense limited TSU to just 290 yards of total offense with John Hugunin (Oswego, Ill.) recording 15 tackles and 3.5 tackles for loss while Taylor Coleman (Hawthorn Woods, Ill.) added 11 stops on a night that saw the defense record three sacks and 11 tackles behind the line of scrimmage. Of All-PFL punter Cam Bohnert's (Edmond, Okla.) nine punts, only one was returned – for a scant three yards – with the others fair caught and two downed inside the TSU 20-yard line.
After falling behind early its week one contest, Drake corrected that error by scoring on its first drive on an 11-play, 67-yard march down the field. Rice, who was 5-of-5 passing for 59 yards on the drive, found Saubert over the middle for an 11-yard touchdown to go up, 7-0, early.
Drake's next drive stalled and gave TSU the ball on the Drake 45-yard line. Eight plays later, TSU tied the game on 1-yard dive from Devonte Black at the close of the first quarter. The drive was extended by a Drake roughing the passer penalty to put Truman State into the red zone.
Neither squad got back on the scoreboard in the first half as Drake didn't cross midfield while Truman State threatened once, but a 42-yard field goal attempt struck the right upright to keep the score tied at halftime.
The second half was more of a defensive battle with the teams combining to punt on 10 straight possessions until the final minutes of the fourth quarter when the Drake offense shifted into gear.
“They [Truman State] were giving us some difficult things – defensively – that really threw us off balance in the second, third and part of the fourth quarter,” Fox said. “Finally we got it figured out on how to attack it and our guys responded well.”
With 3:45 left on the clock, Drake took possession on its own 20-yard line and continued to employ glimpses of an option attack to march down the field with Rice rushing for 15 yards the first play and Conley adding a 15-yard scramble of his own to take the ball to midfield.
“It's something we have in our package and I wish we would have went to it sooner,” Fox said of the option. “Once we did, that opened some things up and forced some changes in their defense which brought the rest of our offense back into play.”
Eight plays later Drake worked the ball down to the Truman State 20-yard line with one second on the clock to set up a potential 37-yard game-winning field goal. Unfortunately for the home team, the attempt sailed wide right to force the extra period and set up Drake's eventual game-winning score.
Drake hits the road for the first time this season for its next contest, a 3 p.m. game at Western Illinois on Saturday, Sept. 13, for the team's final non-conference game of the season.
