BROOKINGS – The South Dakota State Jackrabbits didn’t have their best game but it didn’t matter as Amar Johnson ran for 126 yards and a touchdown to help SDSU earn a 24-3 victory at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium on Saturday night.

The game featured some sloppy play from the Jackrabbits, who had just as many penalty yards (110) as Augustana had in total offense (171) and brought out some increased urgency from SDSU head coach Jimmy Rogers to see his team grow after the game.

“We’ve got to learn in a hurry and we’ve got to grow up,” Rogers said. “We’ve got to mature in many ways. Some of this is a lack of discipline. Some of this is an immaturity thing and it’s on me. So I’ll address it on Monday. We’ll grow as a team. We’ll get better. But we need to play better than that in order to have the results and have the expectations that we want as a football team to actually accomplish.”

The game got off to a shaky start when Kolton Tilford fumbled on the opening kickoff and the ball was recovered by Augustana’s Kael Ryan at the Jackrabbits’ 11-yard line. While the Vikings were gifted prime field position, a pair of false starts helped the SDSU defense stand tall before forcing a 32-yard field goal by Jack Pecina that put the Vikings on the board with 13:04 left in the first quarter.

SDSU moved down the field on the following drive but was stopped on a 3rd-and-7 at the Augustana 19-yard line before a defensive holding penalty kept the drive alive. On the next play, Mark Gronowski scored capitalized with a nine-yard touchdown run to give Jacks a 7-3 lead with 9:59 left in the first quarter.

The rest of the first quarter featured a highlight reel interception by SDSU cornerback Colby Humphrey but not much offense. After going into the second quarter with the lead, Amar Johnson ripped off gains of 16 yards, 26 yards and 12 yards before an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty set Johnson up for a one-yard touchdown run to put the Jacks up 14-3.

Hunter Dustman added a 39-yard field goal with 44 seconds left in the second quarter to give SDSU a 17-3 lead at halftime but the Jacks’ offense stalled again after Johnson was stopped on a 4th-and-2 on the Augustana 21-yard line with 9:24 left in the third quarter.

A nine-yard punt by Jorey Sorenson put SDSU back in business however and after Gronowski completed a three-yard pass to Johnson and a 12-yard pass to Grahm Goering, Johnson ripped off a 13-yard run that set up a one-yard touchdown plunge by Gronowski to extend the lead to 24-3.

The outcome wasn’t in doubt for the rest of the night but there were still facets that seemed off. Gronowski finished with six carries for 28 yards and two touchdowns on the ground but only completed 19-of-27 passes for 141 yards and two interceptions.

“Mark knows what he needs to improve,” Rogers said After the game. “Mark works extremely hard day in and day out, fixing all mistakes whether they happen at a game or at practice. He’s going to take the time to address that. For him, it’s just moving on to the next play and playing in the present and I feel like he did that, I do. But he just made some untimely errors and we’ll see what it means.”

But even with all of the shortcomings, SDSU still put forth enough positives, especially in the running game where they racked up 233 yards on the ground. Johnson believes part of his success was due to an offensive line that has started to come together after entering the year with three new starters.

“It kind of takes a minute to mesh with those guys, but I have all of my faith in those guys,” Johnson said. “Even with however many yards I had…I still couldn’t do it without them.”

The running also benefitted from some new faces as freshman Maxwell Woods had six carries for 61 yards including a 44-yard gain in the third quarter and redshirt freshman Kirby Vorhees had five carries for 21 yards. 

“[Maxwell] is a very great player,” Johnson said. “I was glad to see him get a lot of reps and break a big one. The future for him is bright and getting Kirby in there, Kirby works very hard in the summer, so he definitely deserved it. It’ll be good to see in the next couple of weeks what those guys can do.”

Woods also added two catches for nine yards while Johnson had three catches for 14 yards.

Griffin Wilde had six catches for 47 yards. Kentrell Prejean had three catches for 20 yards. Grahm Goering had a pair of catches for 25 yards. Greyton Gannon had one catch for 12 yards. Elijah Ervin had one catch for eight yards and Kevin Brenner had one catch for six yards.

Kobe Clayborne led SDSU with five tackles while Dalys Beanum, Colby Huerter, Graham Spalding, Adam Bock and Dawson Ripperda each had four tackles. Ripperda had 1.5 sacks while Logan Green had 0.5 sack.

While a win is a win, Rogers stressed there are things that his team can work on and the message was more of a reality than a negative one as they prepare for next week’s game against Southeastern Louisiana next Saturday at 6 p.m.

“I think we’re in a good spot, but we need to take the maturity and grow from this because these are mistakes that will beat us later on if we’re unwilling to accept them right now.”