By Andrew Holtan
The Brookings Beacon
BROOKINGS – After a dominating first half, South Dakota State held off South Dakota for a 31-21 win on Saturday at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium.
SDSU head coach Dan Jackson said while the fourth quarter was disappointing, he wants to look at the positive of beating a rival in a top-six matchup.
“[SDSU athletic director Justin Sell] knows I would have really wanted to bury them, but he reminded me about four times after the game ended to enjoy it, and we will,” Jackson said.” This is a huge win in front of our home crowd, and I think everybody that watched that game saw the level of dominance and the physicality that was there, and it didn’t end up on the scoreboard.” No. 5 ranked SDSU (7-2) led 28-0 midway through the third quarter but the No. 6 ranked Coyotes (7-3) cut the lead to 28-21 late in the fourth quarter. The Jacks then picked up a first down on third and three from their own 32 with a three-yard run from Chase Mason on the first play out of the two-minute timeout. The next play, Josiah Johnson broke free for a 43-yard run to the USD 22. He went out of bounds on the play, so the Coyotes were able to force a field goal attempt, but Tristan Alvano made it from 34 yards out to seal the win.
Mason pulled the ball away from the running back to get the first down on the third down play and he said he was glad it worked out.
“We were all thinking just thinking to get the first down.,” Mason said. “… I don’t know why I pulled the ball, but something told me to, and I’m glad I made the right decision.”
SDSU fumbled and punted on its first two drives of the game but then scored on its next three. The first scoring drive was 12 plays and James Basinger capped it off with a two-yard touchdown run to make it 7-0 with 58 seconds left in the first quarter.
The Jacks next scoring drive was eight plays and this time Chase Mason found Jack Smith for a three-yard score on third and goal to make it 14-0 with 10:07 left in the first half. SDSU then went 80 yards in six plays and Mason found a wide open Braden Delahoyde for an 11-yard score to make it 21-0 with five and half minutes left in the opening half.
USD moved the ball to the SDSU 31 late in the first half but Reis Kirschenmen sacked Austyn Modrzewski and the ball came out on the play. The Coyotes were able to hop on it but it made them try a 58-yard field goal attempt from Ford Hamilton and his kick hit off the right upright and it was 21-0 going into the break.
Kirschenmen had two sacks on the day and the Jackrabbits had five as a team. He said the Jacks did a good job of executing when they rushed the quarterback.
“There’s just a lot of schemes. We gamed it up pretty nice on a couple quarterback drop backs, so that was pretty good. I feel like we executed our gameplans pretty well and got free,” Kirschenmen said.
SDSU extended its lead to 28-0 with 5:52 to play in the third quarter as Johnson ran it in from five yards out.
The Jacks looked like they made a stop on 4th and 4 on the first play of the fourth quarter as Modrzewski tried to find Brayden White in the corner of the end zone, but Noah St-Juste was called for pass interference. Two plays later, Modrzewski found White for a four-yard score to get the ‘Yotes on the board.
Jackson said the pass interference call gave the Coyotes the momentum to get back in the game.
“We had great coverage [on that fourth down] and we stopped them, and then we got a late pass interference flag from a [ref] that’s 35 yards away. Then we needed to wall up, and we stopped them [one more time], but we needed to not give up the touchdown. But that led to giving them any sort of life. If that [flag] doesn’t happen and we go down and score again, it’s 35-0,” Jackson said.
SDSU went into USD territory on its next drive but Alvano missed a 51-yard field goal. The Coyotes took advantage of that, scoring in two plays as Bryce Cohoon broke free after catching a pass and won a 59-yard foot race to the end zone. That made it 28-14 with 6:30 to play.
The Jacks would go three-and-out on their next possession and the Yotes scored quickly again. This time it was an eight-play drive that took just under two minutes and Modrzewski found a wide open Chris Herrin for a 22-yard touchdown on a reverse flea flicker. That made it 28-21 with 2:08 to play, setting up the game-sealing drive for the Jacks.
Jackson said the way the game played out doesn’t put a sour taste in his mouth and he looks at it as a learning moment.
“[The way we played in the fourth quarter] doesn’t take any enjoyment out of it, but it definitely gives us some tithing that we need to fix as coaches,” Jackson said. “… I mean there’s a million things that happened there in the last eight minutes of the game that added some stress to the coaching staff, and sometimes we need to be put under stress. As a coaching staff, sometimes we react well and calm and collected, and other times you don’t. It was an opportunity to learn and grow, but I would have loved to pitch a shutout.”
Mason was 16-for-26 with 232 yards and two touchdowns. It was his first start in the Interstate Series as he missed last year’s game with an injury. The Viborg native said it meant a lot to come out with a win in what might be his only start in the rivalry.
“It felt great,” Mason said. “Obviously, any win is fun, but against them, it means a little more to me, and the other South Dakota kids as well. … It was literally my first time starting against these guys and they haven’t won [in Brookings] since 2000. We wanted to protect home turf. Looking at the bigger picture, it’s a great opportunity to go out there, I just look at it like I dreamed about this.”
Grahm Goering and Smith each had 84 yards receiving. Goering had six catches and Smith had five.
SDSU had 227 rushing yards Johnson led the way with 126 yards. Basinger had 84 yards on 17 carries.
At one point in the first half, SDSU was out-gaining USD 265-2. The final margin ended up being 459-252, but Jackson said his team dominated up front on both sides of the ball.
“I thought we dominated both lines of scrimmage. I thought that was clear to anybody that was there today. They couldn’t block our defensive line,” Jackson said.
The win puts the Jacks in a great position to get a top-eight seed in the FCS Playoffs as they close with road games at Northern Iowa (4-4, 3-2) and Southern Illinois (4-5, 2-3), and finish the regular season with a home game against Indiana State (2-7, 0-5).
Jackson didn’t want to talk about the playoff implications after the game on Saturday when he was asked if he thinks these two teams could meet again in the postseason. He’s focused on the next opponent.
“I’m not worried about [the playoffs],” Jackson said. “I’m worried about Northern Iowa. If [USD] wants to worry about that, they can. [UNI] is one of the tougher places to play in the conference. … I think [UNI is] a great team that’s going to be there in the playoffs, 100%. They have a great coach that’s going to get them going, so we’ve got to shift our focus on the task at hand here, which is Northern Iowa and getting better.”
