South Dakota State football downs UND 49-35, improve to 7-1

GRAND FORKS, N.D. – It looks like South Dakota State has found the formula.

Spot the opponent a couple of touchdowns, let them get the momentum and the home crowd on their side, then rip their hearts out just when they’re feeling good.

“I’ve been practicing these halftime speeches,” coach John Stiegelmeier joked of the sluggish first halves. “I just want to try them out once in a while.”

He then added, “I did tell the guys, you’d let me live a little longer if you could start out a little better.”

More:Behind quarterback Bouman, South Dakota football storms back to stun No. 14 Southern Illinois 27-24

The top-ranked Jackrabbits again found themselves on their heels in the first quarter, falling behind by 14 points on the road for the second straight week, but for the second straight week they took back the momentum before halftime and then dominated the second.

The result was a 49-35 win over a No. 20 North Dakota team that had won 17 of its last 18 home games, as SDSU outscored the Fighting Hawks 21-0 in the third quarter and at one point went on a 42-7 run.

SDSU (7-1, 5-0) was playing without star running back Isaiah Davis, and lost All-American linebacker Adam Bock to an injury in the first quarter. But ace tight end Tucker Kraft was back, and the Jacks were clearly still riding the confidence that last week’s comeback against North Dakota State gave them.

Two-touchdown deficit in front of 11,067 fans at an Alerus Center where SDSU has only won once in their history? No problem.

“I never lost faith, just like last week,” said receiver Jadon Janke, who had five catches for 86 yards, returned a punt 58 yards to set up a score and completed a 16-yard pass to quarterback Mark Gronowski to set up another. “Once we got some momentum going our way it was a breeze. We just played our game and good things happened for us.”

The momentum changed on a big turnover.

After UND (4-3, 3-2) had taken a 14-0 lead on a pair of quick touchdowns, one set up by a 61-yard Bo Belquist punt return, the Hawks got the ball back looking to go up by three scores. But quarterback Tommy Schuster’s quick out pass to the far side of the field hung in the air like a balloon, and DyShawn Gales was there to steal it and race 31 yards for a score. Just like that it was 14-7, even though SDSU had yet to even get a first down.

“Going off what we’d seen in practice and on film, I saw the formation they were in and just jumped the route and made a play,” Gales said. “They came out fast and made some big plays. We knew if we kept our heads up and kept playing we could make a play. We needed a turnover and luckily I was in the perfect spot to make a play.”

Though UND would answer with a score early in the second to push the lead back to 14 at 21-7, it felt like UND had blown a chance to bury the Jackrabbits. When Kraft, playing for the first time since the season-opener, took a pass over the middle and rumbled 32 yards for a touchdown, the SDSU comeback seemed inevitable, and it came quickly and completely in the second half.

“The difference in the entire game was our three turnovers and we didn’t force any,” said Hawks coach Bubba Schweigert. “When you throw a pick-six it deflates your sideline, that’s what happens. We still went down and scored again, we were up seven at half, you should feel good about that. But the start of the third quarter just wasn’t good.”

SDSU rattled off three quick touchdowns in the third quarter, on a 10-yard pass from Gronowski to Jaxon Janke, a 2-yard dump-off to Zach Heins and a 1-yard run by Gronowski. He added a second touchdown run early in the fourth to make it 42-21 and put the game away, though UND would show a flicker of life late when they turned a blocked punt into a touchdown and then recovered the onside kick with a minute to go.

“I’m more disappointed in the way we finished the game than the way we started it,” Stiegelmeier said. “That’s more disappointing, and I told the guys that. But don’t have a bad taste in your mouth, because we won the football game on the road against a really good team.”

Gronowski threw for 197 yards and three touchdowns to go with his two rushing scores. Amar Johnson rushed for 71 yards and Kraft caught three balls for 53 yards. Schuster threw for 291 yards for the Hawks, but threw two interceptions that were both killers. The pick-six to Gales, and a second that was picked off in the end zone by Malik Lofton just before half, with UND in field goal range.

With the win, SDSU defeated all three Dakota schools this year – South Dakota, North Dakota State and North Dakota – in successive weeks. They shook off a slow start in all three, and won in two of the toughest places to play in all of FCS football in each of the last two weeks.

“That’s just us,” Kraft said. “That’s our mentality. We go into people’s houses and we make it ours. The score doesn’t represent how well we played at times. When we execute at a high level we can’t be stopped. We made so many errors and mistakes today. If we get rid of those we’ll really be dangerous.”

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: South Dakota State football takes down UND 49-35, improve to 7-1