A week removed from a beatdown by the hands of North Dakota State, Saluki football returned to Carbondale for another ranked matchup with the other MFVC team from the Peace Garden State, the North Dakota Fighting Hawks, on Saturday.

The Salukis got the ball to open the game and were held scoreless on their first possession, the first time that has happened this season, being forced to punt before they were able to move the chains.

UND was the first team to get on the board, rushing for 52 of their 64 yards on the drive, with Sawyer Seidl breaking off a 28-yard run into the endzone.

The Salukis struggled to stop the ball on the ground again on Saturday, allowing North Dakota as a team to rush for 307 yards and find the endzone four times in that manner, the third straight week allowing over 300 yards on the ground.

“It’s gonna be hard to win in this league if a team rushes for 300 yards,” coach Nick Hill said “Their quarterback didn’t have to do anything.”

SIU was unable to get past the sticks on their second possession of the afternoon, punting the ball away again, but the Hawks responded with a three-and-out of their own to give the ball back to DJ Williams and the Dawgs.

The Salukis found some offense in drive No. 3, with short gains getting them into UND territory for the first time. Facing a fourth and long, the Dawgs went for it, but a UND rusher was able to wrap up Williams deep in the backfield to set the Fighting Hawks offense on the SIU half of the field. With the short field, Seidl was able to find the endzone for a second time and double the North Dakota lead.

Chasing two scores, the Dawgs got the passing game going, picking up 51 yards on two passing plays to get deep into UND territory, but they still weren’t able to come away with points as the ball was coughed up inside the 10 and recovered by a white jersey.

“The turnovers, we got to figure it out. We have to value the football, we got to find a game where we don’t turn it over,” Hill said.

A 45-yard gain on the first play following the takeaway helped the Hawks on their 94-yard trek across the field to stretch their lead even further with UND quarterback Jerry Kaminski breaking the plane on a QB keeper.

The teams traded punts to give SIU the ball at its own one under two minutes in the half and a UND interception inside of the 30-second mark set up Seidl to complete the hat trick, giving the Fighting Hawks a 28-0 lead going into halftime.

“The first half was inexcusable. It starts with me, my job as the head coach, I’m in charge of the whole thing here,” Hill said.

Out of the locker room, the Salukis forced a quick punt and the offense gave the home crowd something to cheer about with Williams hitting Fabian McCray deep downfield for a gain of 43, leading to the first points of the game for the Dawgs with Chandler Chapman finding the endzone from four yards out.

Dashing much of the hope of a miraculous comeback, the UND offense chewed through nearly seven and a half minutes of clock and got the ball to Seidl for his fourth touchdown of the day, this one his first receiving score of the game.

Not ready to quit, the Dawgs pushed the ball down field for Williams to punch in his first touchdown of the game and an unsuccessful two-point conversion attempt left the score at 35-13. A surprise onside kick on the ensuing kickoff was recovered by the Saluki kicker, Paul Geelen, keeping the ball in SIU’s possession, but the Dawgs weren’t able to do much with it and turned the ball over on downs.

The Hawks drained more clock and kicked a field goal and the Salukis put up a touchdown with the game already well out of reach for North Dakota to finish on top, 38-19.

“This loss was frustrating. Any loss can be frustrating, but it seemed like we kind of just beat ourselves,” SIU linebacker Colin Bohanek said. “It didn’t feel like we got completely outplayed by North Dakota. It felt like we didn’t play a full collective team football game.”

The Salukis drop to 4-3 on the season and 1-2 in conference play with the loss. They will look to end the two-game skid next Saturday, Oct. 25, at home against the Panthers of Northern Iowa for SIU’s Homecoming game.

Sports Reporter Nick Pfannkuche can be reached at npfankuche@dailyegyptian.com. To stay up to date on all your southern Illinois news, be sure to follow The Daily Egyptian on Facebook and X @dailyegyptian.

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