HARRISONBURG, Va. – It just wasn’t the Jackrabbits’ day.

Appearing in the FCS Playoffs semifinals for the first time, South Dakota State turned the ball over 10 times in a 51-16 loss to top-seeded and defending-champion James Madison on Saturday night at Bridgeforth Stadium.

Jackrabbit quarterback Taryn Christion was under pressure from the get-go and turned the ball over nine times – six interceptions and three fumbles – while getting sacked five times.

“Panicked,” SDSU coach John Stiegelmeier said about the 10 giveaways. “It started with our pass rush. That’s the best up-front we’ve seen. Now we could have done better, but they’re a good football team and have a good defensive front four; and so it starts there.

“Taryn pressed some. He’s a winner in every sense of the word; tonight he just struggled.”

JMU coach Mike Brown called his defensive line’s pressure the difference in the game.

“Certainly with the talent they have at receiver and tight end, we wanted to try to take away the run game and get him uneasy in the pocket; and that way he wouldn’t have time to make accurate throws,” added the Dukes’ second-year coach, who recently signed a 10-year extension. “We got a hit on him on the first play of the game and we kind of kept on throughout the game.

“I’ll tell you, he showed a lot now. To stay in that ball game with the hits he was taking in the pocket and the way things were going, they showed a lot of toughness. But I certainly thought that was a factor in the ball game, and I thought our ability to rattle him and force a lot of turnovers was obviously a big factor in the ball game.”

James Madison scored 30 points in the third quarter to pull away from a 21-10 halftime advantage.

Georgia Tech transfer Marcus Marshall ran 15 times for 203 yards, including touchdown runs of 65 and 87 yards – the latter of which came on third down – in the first 4:19 of the second half. He was one of the Yellow Jackets’ top runners the past two seasons, totaling 1,902 yards and 12 touchdowns.

Marshall has 820 yards and 10 TDs this year.

“They had some scheme things that they were doing well and players can always make plays to make up for that scheme, but hat’s off to them for what they did,” SDSU linebacker Christian Rozeboom, who had nine tackles, said of the long runs.

Taylor Woods capped a 70-yard drive with a 3-yard plunge to paydirt and Ethan Ratke booted a 24-yard field goal.

Raven Greene’s 59-yard interception return for a touchdown pushed the margin to 51-10 with 36 seconds left in the period.

“My hat goes off to JMU, Coach Houston – the type of program they have, the atmosphere they have here is awesome,” said Stiegelmeier. “They’re a really good football team. I do wish them the best in the championship.

“We were excited to be here but, obviously, disappointed in the way we played. Part of that is the good football team we played, so congratulations to those guys.”

The defense kept SDSU in the game early, as the visitors trailed just 7-0 despite five first-quarter turnovers.

The Jackrabbits moved the ball to the JMU 25-yard-line on their opening drive; however, Brandon Hereford popped Brady Mengarelli, forcing a fumble that was recovered by Jordan Brown.

SDSU’s second turnover – a Christion fumble – came at its own 5-yard-line. Three plays later, Bryan Schor found an open Riley Stapleton in the end zone from 2 yards out.

Despite the turnover flurry, the Jackrabbits knotted the score following a seven-play, 74-yard drive. Jake Wieneke’s 60th career touchdown – 59th receiving – came on a 9-yard pass from Christion at the 11:58 mark of the second stanza.

The Dukes countered with a 10-play, 75-yard march as Schor and Stapleton hooked up for another TD – this time a 15-yarder – with 8:12 left.

Chase Vinatieri’s 37-yard field goal cut the deficit to 14-10 with 56 seconds left.

Marshall returned the ensuing kickoff 38 yards to the 42 and Schor hit Stapleton for a 30-yard gain on the next play from scrimmage. A questionable pass interference call put the ball at the 13, and Schor eventually scored on a 1-yard push with 9 seconds left.

“I think that was a big series,” noted Stiegelmeier. “… That was not good, but it was still an 11-point game at that point.

“Really the thing that crushed it was the two long runs right out of the chute. I think it was four plays and they had two touchdowns. I would say we broke down there; we didn’t fit plays right and when you’re playing that type of athlete, it’s going to happen.”

The TD right before the half got the scoring binge going, with James Madison putting up 37 points in 14 1/2 minutes of game time.

Schor finished 18-of-25 for 203 yards with two TDs.

Jimmy Moreland came up with three of the Dukes’ six picks. Brown added two INTs in addition to the fumble recovery. Kyre Hawkins recovered a pair of fumbles and Hereford one. Darrious Carter tallied two sacks. Rashad Robinson registered a game-high 12 tackles, including a sack.

Christion threw for 234 yards and two TDs, adding a 5-yarder to Dallas Goedert early in the fourth quarter.

“Anytime you fumble the ball or throw interceptions, a lot of times they’re avoidable,” said Goedert. “They made some nice plays defensively, we just needed to be better offensively.

“Our defense started the game off great. … They really battled; they played really well in the first half. We had five turnovers in the first quarter – it’s tough to win a football game like that.”

Wieneke capped his record-setting career by coming up with seven receptions for 105 yards with the TD.

Wieneke caught at least one pass in all 53 games in his career – an FCS record streak. He broke a tie with former Eastern Washington standout Cooper Kupp.

Goedert had five catches covering 43 yards.

Mengarelli and Isaac Wallace both ran for 66 yards on a combined 22 attempts.

Nick Farina paced the defense with 10 tackles. Rozeboom had his second two-takeaway game of the year, intercepting a pass and returning it 65 yards to set up SDSU’s final score while also adding a fumble recovery.

South Dakota State finished the year with an 11-3 record.

James Madison (14-0), which has won 26 in a row, faces No. 2 North Dakota State (13-1) in the FCS title game Saturday, Jan. 6, at 11 a.m. in Frisco, Texas.

The Dukes are the only visiting team to ever win a Division I postseason game in the Fargodome, upending the Bison 27-17 in the semifinals last season en route to taking the championship.

Notes: SDSU fell to 6-7 in seven appearances in the FCS Playoffs. … Cade Johnson set an SDSU single-season record for kickoff return yards with 839, breaking the previous mark of 824 (Rick Wegher, 1984). … Vinatieri went 13-of-14 on field goals this year.

JAMES MADISON 51, SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 16

SDSU (11-3) 0  10    0  6  –  16

JMU (14-0) 7  14  30  0  –  51

First Quarter

JMU – Riley Stapleton 2 pass from Bryan Schor (Ethan Ratke kick), 7:40

Second Quarter

SDSU – Jake Wieneke 9 pass from Taryn Christion (Chase Vinatieri kick), 11:58

JMU – Stapleton 15 pass from Schor (Ratke kick), 8:12

SDSU – Vinatieri 37 FG, :56

JMU – Schor 1 run (Ratke kick), :09

Third Quarter

JMU – Marcus Marshall 65 run (Ratke kick), 14:04

JMU – Marshall 87 run (Ratke kick), 10:41

JMU – Taylor Wood 3 run (Ratke kick), 7:14

JMU – Ratke 24 FG, 3:12

JMU – Raven Greene 59 interception return (kick blocked), :36

Fourth Quarter

SDSU – Dallas Goedert 5 pass from Christion (pass failed), 14:04

SDSU JMU

First Downs 25 16

Plays-Yards 83-366 68-463

Rushes-Yards 35-120 39-257

C-A-Int.-Yards 19-48-6-246 20-29-1-206

Fumbles-Lost 4-4 1-1

Penalties-Yards 3-25 3-32

Punts-Avg.-I20-TB 4-41.8-1-0 7-44.7-3-1

Kickoffs-Avg.-TB 4-46.5-1 9-58-4

Punt Returns-Yards-TD 2-16-0 2-6-0

Kickoff Returns-Yards-TD 4-78-0 1-38-0

Interception Returns-Yards-TD 1-65-0 6-69-1

Fumble Returns-Yards-TD 0-0-0 2-17-0

Miscellaneous Yards 0 0

Possession Time 30:38 29:22

Third-down Conversions 4-of-13 6-of-16

Fourth-down Conversions 0-of-0 0-of-0

Red Zone Chances-TD-FG 4-2-1 5-4-1

Sacks By-Yards 1-5 5-36

Field Goals 1-for-1 1-for-1

RUSHING: SDSU – Brady Mengarelli 9-66, Isaac Wallace 13-66, Mikey Daniel 1-4, TEAM 1-(-1), Taryn Christion 11-(-15). JMU – Marcus Marshall 15-203, Trai Sharp 4-20, Percy Agyei-Obese 7-15, Bryan Schor 4-12, Taylor Woods 2-6, Terrence Alls 1-4, Cole Johnson 3-2, TEAM 3-(-5).

PASSING: SDSU – Taryn Christion 18-43-6-243, Dalton Douglas 1-5-0-12. JMU – Bryan Schor 18-25-0-203, Cole Johnson 2-4-1-3.

RECEIVING: SDSU – Jake Wieneke 7-105, Dallas Goedert 5-43, Marquise Lewis 3-54, Isaac Wallace 2-22, Alex Wilde 1-14, Jacob Brown 1-8. JMU – David Eldridge 5-75, Riley Stapleton 5-70, Terrence Alls 4-29, Taylor Woods 3-23, Ezrah Archie 2-3, Trai Sharp 1-6.

DEFENSE: SDSU – Nick Farina 10 tackles; Christian Rozeboom 9 tackles, INT, FR; Logan Backhaus 8 tackles; Chris Balster 8 tackles, Kellen Soulek 8 tackles; Jordan Brown 6 tackles; Dalton Cox 6 tackles. JMU – Rashad Robinson 12 tackles, sack; Jordan Brown 8 tackles, 2 INT, FR; Brandon Hereford 6 tackles, FR, FF; Raven Greene 6 tackles, INT, TD; Jimmy Moreland 3 INT, .5 sack; Kyre Hawkins 2 FR; Darrious Carter 2 FF, 2 sacks; Andrew Ankrah sack; Percy Agyei-Obese .5 sack.

   A – 16,528 (25,000 capacity).