MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – The Drake football team swung for the fences and scored on its opening drive against No. 1 South Dakota State in a 70-7 loss on Saturday, Sept. 16 at Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins.
"The experience (playing at a baseball stadium) itself was fantastic," head coach
Todd Stepsis said. "The score was bad, but at the end of the day, we'll take some good things from this and move forward as a team."
The Bulldogs came out swinging. On the first play from scrimmage,
Luke Bailey heaved the ball down field to a wide-open
Colin Howard for a gain of 53 yards into SDSU territory. One play later, Bailey connected with Howard again, this time in the back right corner of the end zone. Howard got dirty in the warning track to hang on to the ball for the 35-yard score. Just like that with 12:43 on the first quarter clock, Drake led the top team in FCS by an early score of 7-0. Howard hauled in three catches for 103 yards.
"I put Colin (Howard) up against anybody," Stepsis said. "He's a competitor. We might have caught them (South Dakota State) off guard on that first drive."
South Dakota State immediately answered with a two-minute drive of its own capped off by a 23-yard touchdown pass from Mark Gronowski to Isaiah Davis. The Jackrabbits had excellent starting field position all day and took advantage to find the end zone consistently.
Up 35-7 in the waning moments of the first half, Gronowski was intercepted by
Tyler Radocha on the far sideline with only six seconds to go before the halftime break. Gronowski finished with five passing touchdowns and 226 yards through the air.
The Jackrabbits picked up where they left off in the second half. Drake drove to the South Dakota State 31-yard line at the beginning of the fourth quarter, but
Shane Dunning missed the 48-yard field goal attempt.
South Dakota State accumulated 618 yards of total offense including 359 on the ground.
"We can hit that reset button," Stepsis said. "The first three games did not go how we wanted them to go, but it doesn't mean that the last eight will be like that. We will use this week to heal up and focus on the fundamentals."
The bye week awaits Drake before the Bulldogs begin Pioneer Football League at Morehead State on Sept. 30.
NOTES
- Since 2018, Drake has played seven FCS Top-25 opponents.
- Drake played in a baseball stadium for the first time since 1978 (Long Beach State at Anaheim Stadium in Anaheim, Calif.).
- Today marked Colin Howard's third career 100-yard receiving game and second of the season.
- Tyler Radocha recorded his first career interception.
- Caleb Bowling (three solo) and Sean Allison (five solo) led Drake with six total tackles.
- Game duration was 3:07.
- The announced attendance was 18,174.
- Saturday was the third-ever football game played at Target Field (2017 | St. John's vs. St. Thomas, 2019 | Butler vs. North Dakota State).
- South Dakota State has won five consecutive games against Drake however, the Bulldogs lead the all-time series 8-6.
