BROOKINGS – Jake Wieneke and fifth-seeded South Dakota State drilled New Hampshire 56-14 in the FCS Playoffs quarterfinals on a chilly Saturday at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium.

SDSU (11-2) will make its semifinal debut – looking for its eighth win in a row – this Saturday in Harrisonburg, Va., facing top-seeded and defending-champion James Madison (13-0) at 3:30 p.m. on ESPNU.

The Jackrabbits, who played almost the entire game without Dallas Goedert, opened up a 21-0 lead after a quarter against the Wildcats, pushed the margin to 28-0 at halftime and were up 35-0 in the third. The defense held a shutout for more than 45 1/2 minutes.

“Again, I’m extremely proud of our football team,” said SDSU coach John Stiegelmeier. “We beat a team with an unbelievable tradition and played really well coming out of the chute.

“Our guys believe in themselves; they believe in the schemes; our assistant coaches do a phenomenal job preparing them, taking care of them … during finals week. All that stuff. Balancing all that stuff; I couldn’t be more proud of a group of young men.

“I’m really proud of those guys in the stands, too. There are 50 guys in the stands that don’t get to dress that work their tails off, too, to help prepare our football team. So to all those Jackrabbits, I love them and they’ve done a phenomenal job this far.”

Wieneke had his first 100-yard game of the season and his 24th in 52 career contests.

He’ll never play another game in Brookings, but the Jackrabbits continue to march on in the postseason.

“It feels good; it was a good way to go out, I think, for our team this year and definitely for the seniors – our last game ever here. It’s a good feeling,” he said.

Wieneke had nine receptions for 140 yards and two touchdowns while adding a 48-yard scoring scamper.

Now with 281, Wieneke broke the Missouri Valley Football Conference record for career receptions previously held by Western Illinois’ Lance Lenoir (273 from 2013-16).

He moved into a tie for second in the FCS record book for career TD catches (58) and became the third player in the subdivision to top 5,000 receiving yards (5,052). He’s 18th in receptions.

Taryn Christion ended up 13-of-25 for 190 yards with two touchdowns and ran for 48 yards and a score.

He now has 9,478 yards of offense in his career, breaking the school record of 9,284 (Austin Sumner, 2011-14).

The Jackrabbits racked up 265 yards on the ground, as Isaac Wallace totaled 79 on just seven carries with a pair of scores.

Goedert had a 19-yard catch on the first play of the game, left the field and did not return.

Stiegelmeier listed the tight end as questionable moving forward.

Christion capped a sharp opening drive with a 13-yard jaunt to the end zone on third down.

New Hampshire went three-and-out and, five plays later, Wieneke took possession of the ball on an end around and sprinted up the right sideline for the 48-yard touchdown.

The SDSU defense came up with another stop and the offense kept on rolling as Wallace capped a 12-play, 85-yard drive with a 13-yard TD rush to make it 21-0 with less than a minute to go in the opening period.

The Jackrabbits were forced to punt on their fourth possession, but pushed the margin to 28-0 on their fifth as Christion hooked up with Wieneke for a 32-yard score.

The Wildcats put together their best drive of the half after that, moving 73 yards on 13 plays. However, the Jackrabbits kept the shutout intact when Dalton Cox and Christian Rozeboom stuffed Evan Gray on a run up the middle on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard-line.

“Huge; yeah it was huge,” Stiegelmeier said. “Huge for us, but it had to be tremendously discouraging for them. That’s a double hit in that situation.

“I thought (the defense) played very well.”

Following a slow start to the second half, the teams combined for 21 points in just 26 seconds.

It began with Wallace’s 48-yard rushing touchdown.

The Wildcats got on the board on the next play from scrimmage as Trevor Knight connected with Kieran Presley for a 75-yard catch-and-run to paydirt.

Cade Johnson returned the ensuing kickoff 99 yards for a TD – his second this season – leaving the score at 42-7 with 4:02 to play in the third quarter.

Larenzo Williams had the game’s first takeaway, recording his team-leading fourth interception early in the fourth quarter.

Wieneke’s final play resulted in a 10-yard touchdown reception from Christion with 9:20 remaining in the game as SDSU opened up a 49-7 advantage.

Marshon Harris’ first career pick and 22-yard return set SDSU up at the 13-yard-line and Mikey Daniel found the end zone on the next play for his first postseason score.

Daniel, a sophomore from Brookings, has 11 TDs this season.

A pair of personal fouls and a 35-yard completion from Knight to Malik Love set the Wildcats up at the 1-yard-line, where Gray closed out the scoring with a TD plunge with 6:48 showing on the clock.

“We got our tails beat by a pretty good football team out there, and they executed on the offensive side of the ball as well as any team we’ve played against this year,” said New Hampshire coach Sean McDonnell, whose team fell 21-0 to the Dukes during James Madison’s homecoming game Oct. 28. “It starts with their quarterback; he makes a ton of plays and keeps plays alive. And I know they lost the tight end either the first or second play of the game, and they found other guys to go to and make plays for them.

“Defensively, they shut us down pretty good. It hurt we didn’t get that last one at the end of the half; it might of helped but I don’t think it would have been a determining factor.

“Hats go off to them; they played downhill on us today and won a good football game.”

Ryan Earith paced a balanced SDSU defense with six tackles, including a sack. Cox, Rozeboom and Chris Balster each added five stops. Elijah Wilson recorded a sack.

Notes: SDSU improved to 6-6 in the FCS Playoffs, including a 4-0 record at home and a 2-0 mark versus the Colonial Athletic Association. The Jackrabbits are 2-1 against CAA opponents overall. … Wieneke is averaging 45 yards on three career rushes. He had a 52-yarder as a freshman and a 35-yarder earlier this season, but Saturday’s run was his first to end in paydirt. … In the MVFC career ranks, Christion moved from sixth to fourth in total offense (9,478), ninth to seventh in passing yards (8,281) and sixth to tied for fifth in TD tosses (70). … Brady Mengarelli is eighth in career rushing yards at SDSU with 2,611. He ran nine times for 49 yards against UNH. … SDSU’s seven-game winning streak is tied for its longest in the Division I era, the other coming in 2006.

SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 56, NEW HAMPSHIRE 14

UNH (9-5)   0  0    7    7  –  14

SDSU (11-2) 21  7  14  14  –  56

First Quarter

SDSU – Taryn Christion 13 run (Chase Vinatieri kick), 11:41

SDSU – Jake Wieneke 48 run (Vinatieri kick), 8:36

SDSU – Isaac Wallace 13 run (Vinatieri kick), :56

Second Quarter

SDSU – Wieneke 32 pass from Christion (Vinatieri kick), 5:29

Third Quarter

SDSU – Wallace 48 run (Vinatieri kick), 4:28

UNH – Kieran Presley 75 pass from Trevor Knight (Morgan Ellman kick) 4:17

SDSU – Cade Johnson 99 kick return (Vinatieri kick), 4:02

Fourth Quarter

SDSU – Wieneke 10 pass from Christion (Vinatieri kick), 9:20

SDSU – Mikey Daniel 13 run (Vinatieri ick), 8:38

UNH – Evan Gray 1 run (Ellman kick), 6:48

UNH SDSU

First Downs 19 25

Plays-Yards 70-348 65-455

Rushes-Yards 32-96 40-265

C-A-Int.-Yards 20-38-2-252 13-25-0-190

Fumbles-Lost 0-0 1-0

Penalties-Yards 10-76 6-50

Punts-Avg.-I20-TB 7-38.9-1-0 4-39.2-3-0

Kickoffs-Avg.-TB 3-50.7-0 9-61.1-2

Punt Returns-Yards-TD 0-0-0 1-1-0

Kickoff Returns-Yards-TD 6-107-0 3-132-1

Interception Returns-Yards-TD 0-0-0 2-22-0

Fumble Returns-Yards-TD 0-0-0 0-0-0

Miscellaneous Yards 0 0

Possession Time 30:25 29:35

Third-down Conversions 6-of-16 8-of-13

Fourth-down Conversions 0-of-2 1-of-1

Red Zone Chances-TD-FG 2-1-0 4-4-0

Sacks By-Yards 1-4 2-14

Field Goals 0-for-0 0-for-0

RUSHING: UNH – Evan Gray 16-60, Trevor Knight 7-14, Christian Lupoli 1-14, Brandon Gallagher 4-8, DeUnte Chatman 4-0. SDSU –  Isaac Wallace 7-79, Brady Mengarelli 9-49, Taryn Christion 13-48, Jake Wieneke 1-48, Mikey Daniel 8-42, Dalton Douglas 1-0, TEAM 1-(-1).

PASSING: UNH – Trevor Knight 18-34-2-236, Christian Lupoli 2-4-0-16. SDSU – Taryn Christion 13-25-0-190.

RECEIVING: UNH – Kieran Presley 7-133, Malik Love 4-46, Neil O’Connor 4-38, Nick Lorden 2-18, Brandon Gallagher 2-15, Evan Gray 1-2. SDSU – Jake Wieneke 9-140, Skyler Cavanaugh 2-12, Adam Anderson 1-19, Dallas Goedert 1-19.

DEFENSE: UNH – Jared Kuehl 7 tackles, sack; Pop Lacey 7 tackles; Peter Dummond-Mayrie 6 tackles; Quinlin Dean 6 tackles. SDSU – Ryan Earith 6 tackles, sack; Chris Balster 5 tackles; Dalton Cox 5 tackles; Christian Rozeboom 5 tackles; Elijah Wilson 4 tackles, sack; Larenzo Williams 4 tackles, INT; Jordan Brown 4 tackles; Jessup Workman 4 tackles; Marshon Harris INT.

   A – 5,583.

FCS Playoffs

Quarterfinals

Friday, Dec. 8

No. 1 James Madison 31, Weber State 28

Saturday, Dec. 9

No. 5 South Dakota State 56, New Hampshire 14

No. 6 Sam Houston State 34, Kennesaw State 27 

No. 2 North Dakota State 42, No. 7 Wofford 10

Semifinals

Friday, Dec. 15

No. 6 Sam Houston State (12-1) at No. 2 North Dakota State (12-1), Fargo, N.D., 7 p.m. [ESPN2]

Saturday, Dec. 16

No. 5 South Dakota State (11-2) at No. 1 James Madison (13-0), Harrisonburg, Va., 3:30 p.m. [ESPNU]

Championship

Saturday, Jan. 6

Toyota Stadium – Frisco, Texas

11 a.m. [ESPN2]

Saturday

• No. 6 Sam Houston State 34, Kennesaw State 27

HUNTSVILLE, Texas – The Bearkats (12-1) scored 24 straight points in the first half and then held off the upstart Owls (12-2) to advance.

Jeremiah Briscoe finished 20-of-29 for 316 yards with three TDs and an INT for SHSU. Yedidiah Louis racked up 123 yards and two scores on nine receptions. Corey Avery ran for 129 yards and a score.

Kennesaw State racked up 352 yards on the ground.

Shaquil Terry ran for 120 yards and Darnell Holland 97 to go with a TD. Chandler Burks (TD) and Jake McKenzie added 43 yards apiece, and TJ Reed 41. Burks ended up 7-of-14 for 120 yards with a TD and an INT through the air.

Burks hit Reed for a 23-yard score to cut the deficit to 34-27 with 7:21 showing on the clock.

The Owls’ Dustin Clabough made a diving interception at the SHSU 41 with 5:04 to play.

KSU pushed the ball downfield, eventually facing a fourth-and-5 from the 11 with less than 2 minutes to play. Ezra Naylor took a pitch on a reverse and lost 5 yards as P.J. Hall, who is among the FCS leaders in tackles for loss per game, came up with the game-clinching stop.

Holland opened the scoring with a 13-yard run less than 4 minutes into the game.

Briscoe recorded scoring passes of 61 yards to Nathan Stewart and 16 yards to Louis to make it 14-7 after a quarter. Tre Honshtein kicked a 22-yard field goal and Avery plunged into the end zone from a yard out to push the margin to 24-7 at the 5:45 mark of the second period.

KSU’s Justin Thompson booted field goals of 28 yards in the second and 34 yards in the third to cut the deficit to 24-13.

Honshtein’s 21-yard boot made it 27-13 with 1:46 to play in the third.

Burks scored on a 4-yard run 34 seconds into the fourth but Briscoe answered with a 15-yard TD toss to Louis with 11:58 left, leaving the score at 34-20.

SHSU’s Chris Stewart had 15 tackles, including two sacks. Justin Johnson added 12 tackles, including a sack. Josh Price and Hall both notched 11 stops. Zyon McCollum had four pass breakups and a pick, while Azuka Mgbemena recorded a sack.

The Owls, whose football program was in just its third year, got nine tackles from Izzy Sam. Tonarius Portress and McKEnzie Billingslea both tallied a sack.

Total offense: SHSU 66 plays-482 yards (37-166 rushing/20-29-316 passing), KSU 78 plays-472 yards (64-352 rushing/7-14-120 passing). Turnovers: SHSU 1 (1 INT), KSU 1 (1 INT). Time of possession: SHSU 25:25, KSU 34:35. Attendance: 5,725.

• No. 2 North Dakota State 42, No. 7 Wofford 10

FARGO, N.D. – Easton Stick threw three touchdown passes and ran for another score as the Bison (12-1) became the first team in FCS history to earn seven consecutive semifinal berths by handling the Terriers (10-3) in the Fargodome.

Stick was 11-of-16 for 184 yards through the air and picked up 49 yards on the ground.

“The first thing we did in the locker room was congratulate our scout team,” said NDSU head coach Chris Klieman. “We had a phenomenal look on both sides of the ball. We talked about the genuine appreciation for the effort and commitment everybody makes within our program. The look we had by our scout team offense was phenomenal.”

Wofford got a stop defensively and then opened the scoring on Luke Carter’s 40-yard field goal 6 minutes into the game.

Tight end Connor Wentz, the cousin of former Bison and current Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz, had a career-long 48-yard reception up the right sideline, breaking a couple tackles late and diving into the end zone.

Following a Terrier three-and-out, Stick highlighted NDSU’s next drive with completions of 44 yards to RJ Urzendowski and 18 yards to Seth Wilson – the latter was a leaping catch in the end zone.

That made it 14-3 with 2:32 to go in the first.

Wofford’s Colton Clemons recovered a fumble by NDSU’s Ty Brooks at the Bison 22-yard-line. Andre Stoddard later scored on a 3-yard run to pull the Terriers within 14-10 early in the second.

It was all Bison after that.

Brooks began NDSU’s ensuing drive with a 33-yard run and Bruce Anderson capped it with a 1-yard plunge to paydirt to make it 21-10.

Caleb Butler forced Blake Morgan to fumble two plays later and Robbie Grimsley scooped up the loose ball, returning it 21 yards to the Wofford 3. Stick hit Jeff Illies for a 4-yard score two plays after that to extend the advantage to 28-10.

Brandon Brown fumbled the kickoff – Dimitri Williams forced it – and Brandon Brown pounced on the ball at the Wofford 32.

Anderson scored again, this time on a 5-yard rush, as the Bison opened up a 35-10 cushion 54 seconds before halftime.

Stick added a 7-yard touchdown run with 2:28 left in the third to provide for the final margin.

NDSU outgained Wofford 464-177 in total yards of offense, including a 261-134 advantage on the ground.

The Terriers’ triple-option attack was held 120 yards under its average.

Wilson ran for 74 yards and Brooks 73 for the Bison. Anderson finished with 62 yards and the two TDs. Nine different Bison had at least one reception and none had more than two.

Chris Board had nine tackles and Nick DeLuca seven, including a sack. Wilson blocked a punt.

For Wofford, Morgan ran for 54 yards. Brandon Goodson was 3-of-11 for 43 yards and ran for 17 yards. Colton Clemons had 14 tackles.

Total offense: NDSU 66 plays-464 yards (49-261 rushing/12-17-203 passing), WC 49 plays-177 yards (37-134 rushing/3-12-43 passing). Turnovers: NDSU 1 (1 fumble), WC 2 (2 fumble). Time of possession: NDSU 35:55, WC 24:05. Attendance: 17,008.

Friday

• No. 1 James Madison 31, Weber State 28

HARRISONBURG, Va. – Redshirt-freshman Ethan Ratke booted a career-long 46-yard field goal as time expired as the top-seeded and defending-champion Dukes (13-0) rallied past the Wildcats (11-3) to advance to the semifinals.

James Madison pushed its winning streak to 25 games, which is the second longest in FCS history. The Dukes broke a tie for second with Montana (2001-02) and Penn (1992-95) and are now eight off the record of 33 held by North Dakota State (2012-14).

JMU scored 11 unanswered points in the final 128 seconds to stay alive.

Bryan Schor threw a 40-yard touchdown pass to Riley Stapleton with 2:08 remaining. Trai Sharp dodged a tackle to run in the two-point conversion to knot the score at 28-all.

The Duke defense then forced a three-and-out, and the offense took over on its own 31-yard-line with 1:06 showing on the clock. A penalty moved the ball back to the 26.

Schor sandwiched completions of 14 yards to Terrence Alls and 17 yards to Stapleton around Sharp’s 4-yard run to move the ball to the WSU 39. Following a pair of incompletions, Schor and Stapleton hooked up for a 9-yard gain to the 30.

The Dukes ran the clock down to 1 second and took a timeout.

Ratke’s kick was a no-doubter.

JMU held a 549-329 advantage in total yards of offense.

Schor finished 21-of-45 for 359 yards with a TD and an INT.

Stapleton had a career night with 189 yards on eight receptions with the score. Alls added six catches covering 117 yards.

Marcus Marshall ran for 128 yards and two touchdowns on just 14 attempts.

WSU’s Stefan Cantwell was 12-of-30 for 238 yards with two TDs and an INT. He also ran for 47 yards and a score. Drew Batchelor (four receptions-82 yards) and Kevin Smith (2-85) both found the end zone.

Xequille Harry picked off Schor on the fourth play of the game and returned the ball 40 yards to the JMU 4.

Kevin Smith, who ran for 45 yards in the contest, scored from a yard out soon thereafter to give the guests a 7-0 lead early.

Marshall capped a six-play, 73-yard drive with a 15-yard dash to paydirt 2 minutes later to pull JMU even.

Ratke’s 35-yard field goal early in the second made it 10-7 in favor of the home team.

Jonah Williams blocked Ratke’s field goal attempt as time expired in the first half and Harry recovered, returning the ball 60 yards to the end zone. However, Williams was called for holding on the return as the score stayed at 10-7 heading to the break.

Both teams punted twice in the third quarter, when Smith scored on an 81-yard catch-and-run from Cantwell to make it 14-10 at the 7:13 mark of the period.

Later, JMU used a 24-yard punt return by D’Angelo Amos to take over near midfield.

Following a 29-yard completion from Schor to Alls, Marshall ran for a 20-yard score to put the Dukes ahead 17-14 with 12:11 remaining in the game.

The Wildcats quickly answered as Cantwell capped a quick four-play, 60-yard drive with a 1-yard TD plunge that put WSU ahead 21-17 with 10:01 to go. Smith had a 24-yard rush and Cantwell threw a 36-yard pass to Batchelor during the drive.

Ratke converted a 40-yard field goal at the 7:52 mark to cut the deficit to 21-10.

Weber State countered with a 10-play, 82-yard drive that ate up nearly 4 1/2 minutes of game time. It ended on Cantwell’s 36-yard TD toss to Batchelor with 3:14 to play.

That made it 28-20.

Marcus Marshall returned the ensuing kickoff 30 yards and a penalty on the play moved the ball to the JMU 48 to set up the tying drive.

Kyre Hawkins led the JMU defense with 13 tackles and Brandon Hereford added 11. Rashad Robinson came up with an interception as he and Jimmy Moreland both broke up a pair of passes.

WSU’s Cardon Malan had nine tackles. The Wildcats recorded three sacks.

Total offense: JMU 89 plays-549 yards (44-190 rushing/21-45-359 passing), WSU 62 plays-329 yards (32-91 rushing/12-30-238 passing). Turnovers: JMU 1 (1 INT), WSU 1 (1 INT). Time of possession: JMU 32:39, WSU 27:21. Attendance: 13,490.