Missouri State football flat in loss at South Dakota, clinches losing record
A week after scoring 64 points, Missouri State's offense couldn't get going until late and fell short while clinching a losing season for the first time in three seasons under head coach Bobby Petrino.
The Bears (3-6, 1-5) fell for the sixth time in the last seven weeks in a 20-13 loss at South Dakota (3-6, 2-4) on Saturday afternoon in Vermillion, South Dakota.
A losing season marks the first time the Bears will finish the year below .500 when they went 1-10 in 2019 which was ultimately the final year the program was led by previous head coach Dave Steckel.
The lost season began with the Bears speaking of their national championship aspirations. The team will instead head into the offseason looking to reload while trying to build back into a threat in the Missouri Valley Football Conference.
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Missouri State took advantage of a quick South Dakota turnover by booting in a 20-yard field goal with 6:18 left in the first quarter. The Coyotes followed by scoring 20 unanswered points and kept the Bears off the scoreboard until there were 11 minutes left in the fourth.
USD scored a touchdown on its first drive following the Bears' first three points of the game. An 11-yard touchdown run from Shomari Lawrence gave the Coyotes a lead they never gave back. Aidan Bouman, USD's second starting quarterback of the season amid a disappointing year for the Coyotes, followed by throwing for a pair of touchdowns from 44 and 23 yards away.
The Bears didn't find the endzone until there was 11:01 left in the game when quarterback Jason Shelley threw a four-yard touchdown pass to Naveon Mitchell to cut USD's lead to 20-10.
MSU continued to show a pulse when it got a stop on third down and forced the Coyotes to punt with just under six minutes remaining. Needing a score, the Bears drove to the USD 20 and were forced to settle for a 37-yard Pizano field goal to cut the Coyotes' lead to seven with 2:02 remaining.
With three timeouts remaining, the Bears opted to kick the ball deep instead of attempting an onside kick. Needing a stop, the Bears took advantage of a Coyotes false start before the first play of the drive. USD punted to Missouri State which took over at its own 34 with 1:37 remaining.
Needing a touchdown, the Bears couldn't get into Coyotes' territory. They turned the ball over on downs from their own 41 with 46 seconds left and took their sixth loss of the season.
Shelley finished the game 23-of-38 for 233 yards and a touchdown. The Bears ran for 99 yards on the ground with the Coyotes rushing for just 92. Bouman was 17-for--25 for 235 yards and two scores.
Missouri State will close its home slate of the regular season next week when it hosts Youngstown State.
Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or Twitter at @WyattWheeler_NL. He's also the co-host of Sports Talk on Jock Radio weekdays from 4-6 p.m.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri State football clinches losing season in loss at South Dakota
