SIU football (1-0) opened 2014 with a win in blowout fashion Thursday night.

Head Coach Dale Lennon has been preaching to his players to make a statement all preseason. And his Salukis did just that in a 45 to 0 victory over Taylor University (0-1).

“We can feel good about this game,” Lennon said. “Taylor plays in the toughest football conference at the NAIA level.”

SIU opened up with a big score on the first play from scrimmage when senior running back Malcolm Agnew ran around the Taylor Defense for a 65-yard touchdown.

“I bounced it, and then cut back across the field and got in the end zone. To god be the glory for all of that,” Agnew said, “I was a little winded so I gotta work on the conditioning a little bit.”

SIU took an early lead and never surrendered it to the Trojans.

Agnew would go on to score again on the next drive, this time a 45-yard run to put the Salukis up by two scores.

Agnew finished the game with 207 yards of total offense, two rushing touchdowns and one receiving touchdown.

He finished the game with a whopping 20.7 yards per carry.

The running game did much of the work for the offense, but junior quarterback Mark Iannotti looked good in his first game as a Saluki.

Iannotti played only in the first half, completing 11 passes on 16 attempts with two touchdowns and one interception.

Lennon said Iannotti made a couple of mistakes, but played very well.

Sophomore quarterback Ryan West played the second half for SIU. West threw one touchdown to junior wide receiver Israel Lamprakes for his first career-receiving touchdown.

The Saluki offense finished with a total of 546 yards.

The defensive unit played just as well as the offense, keeping Taylor off the scoreboard and only allowing 141 yards of total offense.

Senior outside linebacker Lamonte Edwards said the defense was good, but needs to work on its communication ahead of the next game.

“That’s one of those things inside that nobody else knows about,” he said. “Alignments and assignments will beat you long before mismatches will. If we’re aligned right and we know our assignments we’re pretty much good.”

SIU will travel to Charleston on next Saturday for it’s second game of the season against the Eastern Illinois University Panthers.

Tony McDaniel can be reached at [email protected], @tonymcdanielDE or at 536-3311 ext. 256