Mistakes Costly For Upper Iowa In Home-Opening Loss

Turnovers were costly for the Upper Iowa Peacocks in their home-opener against St. Cloud State in Fayette on Saturday (Sept. 10, 2016).

The Peacocks gave the ball away five times -- including twice in the fourth quarter -- in a 27-20 setback to the Huskies at Harms-Eischeid Stadium. Both Upper Iowa mistakes in the final 15 minutes of play set up St. Cloud State scores, allowing the Huskies to return to Minnesota with their first win of the season.

Upper Iowa (0-2) scored the game's first points early in the second quarter, when quarterback Dimitri Morales hooked up with Trey MacTaggart on a 10-yard touchdown pass. The TD capped off an 11-play, 70-yard drive and marked MacTaggart's first score of the senior's season.

The Huskies (1-1) grabbed control for the remainder of the quarter and posted a 13-7 lead at halftime thanks to a pair of touchdown connections between Nate Meyer and Jameson Parsons. UIU was able to block the first extra point attempt of SCSU. In between the two Husky scores, the Peacocks drove the ball 62 yards in 9 plays, but came up empty as a 38-yard field goal attempt missed right.

Upper Iowa tied the game on its second possession of the third quarter when Morales found a wide-open Jarred Edmonds streaking down the left sideline. The touchdown completion and run went for 52 yards and knotted the score at 13-13 after the Peacocks' two-point try failed.

Tristan Beyer intercepted a St. Cloud State pass with just over four minutes to play in the quarter and set up the Upper Iowa offense at its own 42-yard line. The Peacocks didn't hold onto the ball long as the Huskies picked off a pass on UIU's second play. The Huskies converted on the turnover with a 33-yard drive to break the tie and get out to a 20-13 lead on a Collin Radowicz 4-yard scamper over the goal line.

St. Cloud State made it a two-score lead, 27-13, with a second scoring drive off a Peacock interception. Meyer got his third touchdown pass of the game hitting John Pass for a 40-yard score.

Upper Iowa took the ensuing possession to the end zone on a 13-play, 75-yard drive. The home team faced a fourth-and-long during the drive, but Morales found Edmonds for 15 yards and a first down. The Peacocks pulled within one score, 27-20, as Morales connected with Edmonds again from 11 yards out for the score with six and half minutes to play.

Upper Iowa had the ball two more times as the clock rolled to zero; but a punt and a fumble ended the team's chance at completing the comeback. St. Cloud State ran the clock out on its final possession to claim the 27-20 victory.

Upper Iowa's defense was stingy against the run allowing only 34 yards on 43 carries to St. Cloud State, but the Huskies went to the air as Meyer picked up 303 passing yards and three touchdowns. Parsons pulled in 10 catches for 97 yards and two scores, while John Pass had nine catches for 138 yards and a touchdown. Stuart Hamman and Gary Koehring led the Huskies' defense with nine and seven tackles, respectively.

Edmonds had another big receiving day for UIU pulling in six balls for 129 yards and two touchdowns, while Jalen Amis had five catches for 81 yards. Ryan Parmely had a second-straight, 90-yard game on the ground rushing for 91 yards on 26 carries. Morales had three touchdown passes and 273 yards on 21 completions.

Adam Lytle and Zach Gardner paced the defense with 10 and 9 tackles, respectively; Gardner also added a fumble recovery. Tanner Thompson added 7 stops, while Beyer recorded 6 tackles with his interception and Jojo Simpson had six tackles including 2.5 for loss and a sack.

UP NEXT: The Peacocks go on the road Saturday (Sept. 17) for their third NSIC cross-division game of the season. Upper Iowa will line up against the Dragons of Minnesota State-Moorhead at 2 p.m. in Moorhead, Minn. Pre-game coverage on AM-950 KOEL begins at 1:30 p.m. with Joe Stasi on the play-by-play call.