The Brookings Register
South Dakota continued its playoff domination on Saturday afternoon as the Jackrabbits blew out Incarnate Word 55-14 in the FCS Quarterfinals at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium.
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BROOKINGS — South Dakota continued its playoff domination on Saturday afternoon as the Jackrabbits blew out Incarnate Word 55-14 in the FCS Quarterfinals at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium.
It was a rematch of a 45-24 Jackrabbit victory on Sept. 7 and this time it was all SDSU. The Jacks fumbled on their opening drive of the game, but then proceeded to score on five of their next six drives to a 31-0 lead into halftime.
“Really excited about the win, but I’m more excited about how we did it,” said SDSU head coach Jimmy Rogers. “Playing together. Team defense. Creating turnovers and opportunities for our offense, and then consistently executing on offense at rapid speed.”
Chase Mason had the fumble on the Jacks’ opening possession of the game. SDSU then forced a three-and-out and would break the 0-0 tie. A Mark Gronowski 35-yard touchdown strike to Griffin Wilde capped off a seven-play 76-yard drive and put the Jacks up 7-0 with 4:30 left in the first quarter.
The Cardinals then found some momentum as they moved the ball into the red zone as the second quarter was starting. They faced a fourth and one at the Jackrabbit eight yard line and quarterback Zach Calzada kept it but was stuffed at the line of scrimmage and the Jacks took over.
SDSU would march down the field again and it was the Gronowski to Wilde connection that led to points again. It was from 35 yards out again and the Jacks went up 14-0 with just under 10 minutes to play in the first half.
Wilde had three catches for 67 yards and it was the second-straight game that Wilde had two touchdowns. He now has eight touchdowns in his last five games. Gronowski said he can see Wilde’s confidence growing and that has led to his big performances in the first two games of the playoffs.
“It’s the work that we have been putting in together all season long. After practice he and I are getting in extra reps and trying to build that connection so I know where he’s going to be at and where I want him to be at. He’s just getting confident, and that comes with experience. I hope he continues to play ball like he has and I’m really excited to see how he finishes [the season] and the rest of his career,” Gronowski said.
UIW then had its first turnover of the game. SDSU pressured Calzada and he lofted one up over the middle of the field. It hung in the air and landed in the hands of Matthew Durrance for an interception and he returned it to the UIW 15. Six plays later Gronowski ran it in from three yards out to make it 21-0 with six minutes left in the half.
The Cardinals went three-and-out on their ensuing possession, but on the first play of the Jacks’ next possession Mark Gronowski made his only mistake of the day as he was intercepted by Ronald Wilson. UIW then faced a fourth and one again and Calzada would keep it again. This time the play was completely blown up and he lost 12 yards and SDSU took over at its own 48.
The Cardinals finished the day 1-of-6 on fourth downs. Senior cornerback Dalys Beanum said when you stop a team that many times on fourth down, you can feel the wind come out of their sails.
“It’s huge. Whenever we can get their offense off the field and give the ball back to our offense, it’s awesome. We knew that they were going to go for it on fourth down a lot, so it’s exciting to get off the field, especially in that fashion. Whenever a team thinks they can get it on fourth down and the defense ends up stopping them, that’s a huge momentum change” Beanum said.
The Jacks took advantage of the turnover on downs as they scored another touchdown. They went 52 yards in five plays and Gronowski scored on a quarterback sneak to make it 28-0 with one minute left in the half.
SDSU wasn’t done scoring in the first half though. Steven Arrell stripped the ball from UIW’s Jalen Walthall and Tucker Large recovered the fumble at the UIW 29. SDSU took a couple shots at the end zone but would have to settle for a field goal. Hunter Dustman knocked it through from 36 yards out to make it 31-0 at the half.
SDSU kept its foot on the gas out of halftime as Gronowski would throw another long touchdown pass a minute and a half into the second half.. This time he found a wide open David Alpers who then ran to the end zone for a 59-yard score. It was the first touchdown of Alpers career and it made it 38-0.
Gronowski finished the day 7-of-16 for 174 yards. Alpers lone catch was the touchdown and Lofton O’Groske had three catches for 48 yards.
The Cardinals then scored on back-to-back drives. The first touchdown of the game for UIW was a three-yard pass from Calzada to Roy Alexander. Calzada then took it himself from a yard out to make 38-14 at the end of the third.
Hunter Dustman hit a 30-yard field goal early in the fourth and then Kirby Vorhees scored on a one-yard touchdown run to make it 48-14 with just under 11 minutes to play. The Jacks scored one more time to put an exclamation point on the afternoon. Breden Begeman got in on the scoring as he plunged into the end zone from a yard out to make it 55-14 with six and a half minutes left and that was the final.
SDSU finished with 274 yards rushing as a team. Amar Johnson led the way with 133 yards on 18 carries. Vorhees had 59 yards on the ground and Mason had 44.
Jackrabbit senior center Gus Miller said he felt like the offensive line was getting a great push all day long.
“Our running backs were allowed to follow us and really lead. I was excited to see the push that we were getting on the front four, which allowed us to get to the linebackers and our running backs were just following the way,” Miller said.
The Cardinals finished with 345 total yards. 258 of those yards came through the air, but they had just 169 passing yards heading into the final quarter and Calzada’s longest completion was 21 yards. The Jacks gave up 351 yards through the air in the meeting with the Cardinals in September and Beanum said the team really focused on eliminating explosive plays.
“All week we watched film on that previous game in September. We knew the stakes [of this game] and the miscues that we made [in September]. Eliminating explosive plays is always part of our standard. It’s something that we always try to limit and I felt like we did a great job of that today and that led to success,” Beanum said.
SDSU will play the winner of North Dakota State and Mercer at 11 a.m. next Saturday. It’s the fifth-straight season that the Jacks will be playing in the semifinals and the seventh time in the past eight years. Rogers said that’s a cool accomplishment but the Jacks always have a bigger goal in mind.
“It’s awesome for the university. National branding and national television, to go out and dominate like we did, I think it says a lot. For us as competitors, it means nothing unless you go to the National Championship and leave there on that stage holding the trophy. So, we’re going to focus on this week and get ready and get healthy and attack it with everything inside of us to punch our ticket [to the National Championship],” Rogers said.