Tigers fall 63-7 to Morningside

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SIOUX CITY, Iowa — Dakota Wesleyan University’s football team never got anything going as it fell 63-7 to No. 4 Morningside College in a Great Plains Athletic Conference matchup Saturday in Sioux City, Iowa.

The No. 19-ranked Tigers trailed 23-0 after the first quarter and struggled to stop an offense run by former DWU head coach Brad Pole. Pole took over as the Mustangs’ offensive coordinator during the offseason.

“Coach Pole did a good job of putting their guys in a good spot,” Wesleyan head coach Ross Cimpl said, “but I don’t think we made very many plays defensively. There were missed tackles and other things we could have done to help ourselves out and we didn’t.”

Down 30-0 midway through the second quarter, the Tigers looked to gain momentum. Quarterback Jon Bane connected with Derek Carlson for a 46-yard touchdown pass to put DWU on the scoreboard and the defense stopped the Mustangs early on their next drive to force a punt.

Then, Ben Hatcher rushed in to block Morningside’s first punt attempt of the game to set DWU up six yards away from the end zone.

The Tigers were unable to score on the drive, choosing to go for it on fourth down instead of kicking the field goal, and Morningside held on to its 30-7 lead. DWU got the ball one last time before half and drove into the red zone again, but as time expired to end the half, Bane was intercepted in the end zone.

“Leaving some points out there hurt us,” Cimpl said.

Cimpl said he hopes his team can gain from the loss and continue to improve.

“We need to be able to learn from what we did well and what we didn’t do well,” he said. “Unfortunately, there’s a lot more things we didn’t do well.”

For the game, Bane was 9-for-31 passing for 81 yards with two interceptions and one touchdown. Josh Endres finished with 41 yards rushing on 22 attempts.

Dakota Wesleyan dropped to 4-2 on the season and 3-2 in the GPAC, while Morningside remained undefeated at 6-0 and 5-0 in the conference.

Dakota Wesleyan looks to shake of its loss when it hosts Doane at 7 p.m. Saturday in Mitchell.

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