VERMILLION, S.D. — L.J. Phillips Jr. is on a tear.
After Phillips Jr. received national recognition for going over 300 yards rushing for the University of South Dakota football team a week ago, the redshirt sophomore became the first Coyote running back to since 2009 to rush for four touchdowns in a game.
“Our offensive line was doing their thing, as usual,” Phillips Jr. said. “It’s a great opportunity to play behind a great O-Line like we have.”
It was his first start as he took over for Charles Pierre Jr., who opened the season as the South Dakota starting running back.
Phillips Jr. did so in USD’s dominant showing at the DakotaDome in on Saturday against Drake, a non-conference contest that ended with a 42-21 final in favor of South Dakota.
“I’m excited about getting a win. I’m really pleased in particular with how we started the football game and ended the first half,” said first-year USD head coach Travis Johansen. “I think we took a step forward with what we did in the first half offensively.”
USD (2-2) took a 28-7 lead into halftime and out-scored Drake (1-2) 14-0 in the third quarter before giving up two fourth-quarter TDs for the Bulldogs.
Phillips Jr. ended with 143 rushing yards on 19 carries with the four scores and three catches for nine yards.
USD senior quarterback Aidan Bouman ended 13 of 20 passing for 226 yards and two touchdowns and no turnovers.
Redshirt sophomore wide receiver Larenzo Fennen turned two catches into 101 yards as he hauled in both of Bouman’s scoring tosses.
“It was a great job by our coaches, schematically,” Fennen said.
Phillips Jr.’s longest run of the day went for 50 yards and put USD up 42-7.
It came on the first play of the Coyotes’ drive after sophomore defensive back Mikey Munn intercepted Drake passes to end consecutive Bulldog possessions.
“As DBs, we work all week for maybe one or two opportunities to make plays,” Munn said. “Our coaches do a great job of putting us in positions to be successful. I was just blessed to be in a good position to make a couple of plays today.”
USD won the opening coin flip and deferred to the second half.
After forcing a Drake three-and-out on the Bulldogs’ opening possession, Bouman found junior Tennel Bryant for a 48-yard passing play to set up Phillips Jr.’s first score from two yards out, the first of three two-yard scores for the Coyotes’ workhorse back.
After USD took a 14-0 lead on a pair of Phillips Jr. two-yard TDs, Drake cut the lead in half with just over seven minutes left in the first quarter on a one-yard touchdown run by quarterback Logan Inagawa.
Bouman found Fenner twice for scores over the final 5 ½ minutes of the first half.
South Dakota went up 21-7 on a 70-yard score from Bouman to Fenner and the two connected against for a 31-yard TD with under a minute left before USD opened it up by scoring on the opening drive of the second half as a Phillips Jr. two-yard dive over the goal line made it 35-7 USD.
Drake tacked on another short scoring run from Inagawa and a six-yard TD pass from Inagawa to Chase Schutty.
USD is at reigning FCS national champion North Dakota State next Saturday.
“We’ve gone through our growing pains with a pretty new team,” Bouman said. “We have a tremendous amount of grit on this team. We were coming off our best week of practice and it showed out there today.”
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Ryan Timmerman
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