BROOKINGS — The postseason has officially arrived for the two-time defending FCS champion South Dakota State Jackrabbits, and it looks like they’re in playoff form.
In a rematch of last year’s national championship game, quarterback Mark Gronowski threw for two touchdowns and ran for two more, and third-seeded SDSU held No. 14 seed Montana to only 75 yards on the ground, coming away with a 35-18 win in the second round of the FCS playoffs Saturday afternoon at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium.
“All playoff wins are tough,” South Dakota State coach Jimmy Rogers said. “Obviously Montana is a really well coached football team, and I felt like we came out and executed really well. To go into the fourth up 28-3, I think that was kind of huge momentum for us. We had one defensive series in the third quarter after scoring going into half, so I think that played a huge part in it.
“I was excited about the way we played in many ways.”
With the victory, the Jackrabbits (11-2) will now move on to face sixth-seeded Incarnate Word in an FCS quarterfinal at noon Saturday in Brookings. The Cardinals held off No. 11 seed Villanova 13-6 in another second-round game.
South Dakota State wideout Griffin Wilde finished with seven catches for 114 yards and was the recipient of both of Gronowski’s TD passes.
On the ground, SDSU carved out 222 yards for an average of 5.3 yards per carry. Amar Johnson paced the Jackrabbits with 16 rushes for a game-high 103 yards, while Angel Johnson chipped in 13 carries for 91 yards.
A fumble by Angel Johnson on the Jacks’ opening possession led to a 34-yard field goal by Ty Morrison, giving Montana a 3-0 lead with 8:01 to play in the first quarter.
However, SDSU redeemed itself on the ensuing possession, putting together a nine-play, 57-yard scoring drive to take the lead for good.
On second-and-short, the Jacks dialed up a trick play when Gronowski delivered the ball wide to Kevin Brenner, who then lobbed it back to Gronowski on the other side of the field. Gronowski did the dirty work, weaving his way 21 yards to the Grizzlies’ 1-yard line, and on the next play, he muscled his way across the goal line to give the Jackrabbits a 7-3 advantage with 2:44 left in the quarter.
“We’ve been working on that trick play since the beginning of the season,” Gronowski said. “Standing in the huddle, usually you have a running back with you. You don’t usually have no running back in the huddle. I look around and don’t see Amar in there, and I’m like, ‘What is going on?’ I see the three tight ends, and I’m like, ‘Oh, we’re running this. We’re running this.’
“It was really cool, and it was a cool opportunity to get Kevin a touchdown pass. I swear I was in to get him a touchdown pass. We’re counting it as a touchdown pass for him.”
Rogers was pleased with the way his offense put together a scoring drive, providing a resounding response to the early turnover.
“Obviously that’s not the way we want to start the game,” he said. “Defensively, we go three-and-out, and then offensively, they come out. And we fumble the ball, and the defense turns around and we get a stop to hold them to three points. That’s a win in our book, but the offense didn’t hang their heads. We got a good return on the kickoff return, and then we were able to score to go up 7-3.
“We felt like if we could just get into rhythm, we could win the football game, and we were able to.”
SDSU extended its lead to 14-3 in the second quarter after Gronowski connected with Wilde on back-to-back deep balls, including a 34-yard TD strike on a post over the middle at the 12:33 mark.
The Grizzlies (9-5) appeared to be putting together a scoring threat on the next possession, using three plays of 20-plus yards to position the ball just outside the red zone, but the momentum was quickly thwarted after Jacks safety Tucker Large intercepted a pass by Montana quarterback Keali’i Ah Yat near the goal line and returned it all the way to the 29.
However, the Jacks were unable to muster any points off the takeaway, with Hunter Dustman’s 44-yard field goal attempt sailing wide left.
“They had some plays going for them and had some things going on offense, so a turnover is our best-case scenario,” Large said. “It ended up working out just fine.”
The Jackrabbits, though, weren’t finished in the first half.
With 57 seconds remaining before the halftime break, Wilde hauled in a 24-yard TD pass from Gronowski on third-and-18, lunging across the pylon to cap a seven-play, 75-yard drive that pushed SDSU’s lead to 21-3.
In the second half, the Jacks put together a methodical drive that spanned 73 yards in 12 plays and took a little more than seven minutes off the clock. Gronowski ended it when he snuck it in from 1 yard out, moving the hosts ahead 28-3 with 14:41 remaining.
“That first drive in the second half, we did really well, but we kind of just shot ourselves in the foot,” Gronowski said. “But it was good to come back and make another drive later in that quarter and kind of make a statement and kind of put the game away going up 28-3 there.
“We felt really, really good about that one.”
On the ensuing possession, it was SDSU linebacker Adam Bock who was the beneficiary of a deflected pass, picking it off and barely staying on his feet long enough to take it 40 yards to pay dirt. It was the second interception return for a touchdown in Bock’s college career, and it gave the Jackrabbits a 35-3 advantage with 13:35 to go in the game.
“I got a nice assist from Matt Durrance, and it kind of ended up right in my lap,” Bock said about the defensive TD. “Just kind of the running back instincts kicked in, and I got to the end zone.”
Ah Yat connected with Sawyer Racanelli on a 44-yard touchdown pass deep down the sideline to pull the Grizzlies within 35-10 with 9:41 remaining, but the scoring came far too late for Montana.
The Grizzlies added a final touchdown in garbage time, with Ah Yat hitting Keelan White on a 9-yard strike to seal the final score with 4 seconds remaining.
Ah Yat completed 19 of 32 passes for 231 yards, two TDs and two interceptions. His top targets were White and Racanelli, who had 68 and 66 yards, respectively.
Gronowski finished 12-of-16 passing (75%) for 151 yards, engineering a Jacks offense that racked up 399 total yards and was a perfect 3-for-3 in the red zone.
Defensively, Bock led the way for SDSU, finishing with eight tackles. Bryce Hawthorne added four stops, including 2 1/2 for loss.
The Grizzlies finished with 306 yards of offense, but 167 of those yards came in the fourth quarter when the game was well out of reach. Through the first three quarters, Montana managed was limited to just 139 yards of offense.
“They did a nice job going and taking the win today,” Montana coach Bobby Hauck said about the Jacks. “I thought they played really hard throughout the game. I thought they were well prepared, and on that some token, I thought we were, too. I thought our guys played really hard.
“I’m appreciative of our guys’ efforts. They just had too much for us. There were a couple plays that got away, and we didn’t get off the field on third down in the first half.”
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