South Dakota State’s second-half comeback bid came up short in the first round of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs Saturday afternoon, falling 24-17 at Montana.
Montana improved to 8-4 overall and will face third-seeded North Dakota State in second-round action Dec. 5 in Fargo, N.D. SDSU ended its season with an 8-4 overall mark in making its fourth consecutive appearance in the postseason.
Trailing 24-0 at halftime, the Jackrabbits began to find success on both sides of the ball in the second half. The SDSU defense held Montana without a first down on its first five possessions of the second half and the Jackrabbits began to click offensively.
SDSU cracked the scoring column five minutes into the second half on a 34-yard field goal by Jay Carlson. The Jackrabbits found the end zone for the first time with 3 minutes, 49 seconds remaining in the third quarter on a 1-yard touchdown run by Taryn Christion. The SDSU touchdown was set up two plays earlier on a 36-yard pass from Christion to Jake Wieneke that put the ball at the Montana 1.
The momentum further shifted in the Jackrabbits’ favor late in the fourth quarter as SDSU put together a nine-play, 80-yard scoring drive that ended when Christion lofted a pass to Dallas Goedert for a 30-yard touchdown on fourth-and-19 with 4:44 to play.
However, the Jackrabbits would not get the ball back. Montana combined short passes with its ground game to pick up four first downs and run out the clock.
After being held without a first down on its first three offensive series of the game, the Montana offense began to find its rhythm late in the first quarter. The Grizzlies drove 78 yards on eight plays, capping the drive with a 4-yard touchdown pass from Brady Gustafson to Jamaal Jones.
Montana carried the momentum through to the second quarter, putting together three more scoring drives. A 26-yard touchdown pass from Gustafson to a leaping Ellis Henderson in the right corner of the end zone finished off a seven-play, 87-yard drive and put the Grizzlies ahead 14-0.
The Grizzly lead grew to 17-0 on a 25-yard field goal by Daniel Sullivan with three minutes to play in the first half and expanded to 24-0 on a 2-yard touchdown run by Jeremy Calhoun in the final minute of the half.
Gustafson ended the day 24-of-39 passing for 295 yards, with Ben Roberts leading the Montana receiving corps with eight catches for 133 yards. John Nguyen led the Grizzlies on the ground with 107 yards on 18 carries.
For SDSU, Christion completed 18-of-43 attempts for 230 yards and was the Jackrabbits’ leading rusher with 54 yards on 19 carries. Wieneke ended the day with six catches for 128 yards as he posted his eighth 100-yard game of the season and 15th of his career.
T.J. Lally racked up a game-high 14 tackles to lead the Jackrabbit defense, followed by seven from Dallas Brown. Jeremiah Kose paced Montana with nine tackles.
Montana tallied 11 tackles for loss in the game, including a pair of sacks by Tyrone Holmes.