SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Austin Simmons threw four touchdown passes, two of them to Caleb Vander Esch, and South Dakota breezed to a 45-10 victory over Missouri State on Saturday.

Missouri State took a 7-0 lead when Tyler Lovelace recovered a Kai Henry fumble at the South Dakota 32-yard line. The Bears found the end zone in seven plays from there, scoring on Peyton Huslig's 4-yard TD toss to Jordan Murray. But South Dakota (3-3, 2-0 Missouri Valley Football Conference) pulled even 88 seconds later on a Simmons-to-Vander Esch 56-yard TD strike.

Mason Lorber's 38-yard field goal 10 seconds into the second quarter gave the Coyotes the lead for good and ignited a 38-0 scoring run. Simmons had TD tosses of 8 yards to Drew Greenhaw, 29 yards to Vander Esch and a 14-yarder to Ben Klett. Kai Henry and Canaan Brooks each ran for a score in the second half.

Simmons finished 15-of-21 passing for 228 yards and he added 34 yards on seven carries. Vander Esch hauled in four passes for 96 yards. Ben Klett had 69 of South Dakota's 220 yards on the ground.

Huslig connected on 21 of 40 passes for 184 yards with two interceptions. The Bears (1-4, 1-1) managed just 64 yards on the ground on 30 carries.