NORMAL, Ill. —Josh Holst threw a pair of touchdown passes and the South Dakota State defense forced three turnovers as the second-ranked Jackrabbits came away with a 31-14 victory over Illinois State Saturday night at Hancock Stadium.
SDSU improved to 5-1 overall and 2-0 in the Missouri Valley Football Conference. The Redbirds, who entered the matchup ranked 10th in the Stats Perform media poll and 11th by the Football Championship Subdivision coaches’ poll, suffered their second loss in a row to fall to 4-2 overall and 0-2 in the MVFC.
The Jackrabbits grabbed an early 7-0 lead by scoring on their first possession of the night. After the Redbirds had to abandon a punt attempt under pressure, SDSU took over at the ILS 38 and needed only three plays to find the end zone as Holst found Lofton O’Groske open down the left hash for a 33-yard score less than four minutes into the game.
Illinois State dominated the stat sheet for most of the remainder of the first half, but could only manage to tie the game midway through the second quarter on a 1-yard touchdown run by Chase Kwiatkowski that capped a 12-play, 64-yard drive.
SDSU turned to its FCS-leading attack and Josiah Johnson in the closing minutes of the opening half to take the lead for good. Johnson broke off a career-long 56-yard run to set up the Jackrabbits at the Illinois State 30 and picked up another 11 yards on his next carry before Tristan Alvano booted a 31-yard field goal on the final play of the half to give the Jackrabbits a 10-7 lead.
The Jackrabbits went up two scores late in the third quarter behind the play of Holst. A native of Marengo, Illinois, Holst finished off a 11-play, 80-yard drive with a 7-yard touchdown pass to tight end Greyton Gannon. Holst completed all five of his pass attempts on the drive and added an 18-yard tun to move the ball into Redbird territory.
The SDSU lead ballooned to 31-7 with a pair of touchdowns two and a half minutes apart early in the fourth quarter. Myles Green picked off a tipped pass from Gage Roy and returned it 31 yards down the right sideline to the end zone before James Basinger put the final nail in the coffin with an electrifying 66-yard touchdown run in which he broke a pair of tackles along the left sideline en route to scoring for the sixth time this season.
Green also recovered a fumble that was forced by Noah Thompson in the fourth quarter, while Noah St-Juste added an interception in the first half to account for the other Jackrabbit takeaways.
Kwiatkowski notched his second 1-yard touchdown run of the night for the Redbirds to close out the scoring.
SDSU finished with a 392-279 advantage in total offense, including a 239-92 edge on the ground. Josiah Johnson posted his third consecutive 100-yard game with 131 yards on 19 carries. Basinger added 90 yards on seven carries.
In the passing game, Holst was an efficient 18-of-23 passing for 153 yards. O’Groske was the Jackrabbits’ top pass catcher with seven receptions for 89 yards.
Victor Dawson paced Illinois State on the ground with 67 yards on 22 carries. Roy completed 16-of-32 passes for 141 yards, but was picked off twice. Ian Wills (61 yards) and Max Ziebarth (47 yards) each tallied five receptions for the Redbirds.
Dontay Johnson led the Jackrabbits with a career-high 13 tackles, with Cullen McShane matching a career best with 12 stops, including a pair of tackles for loss.
Ben Harman and Tye Niekamp each registered eight tackles for Illinois State.
UP NEXT
The Jackrabbits have their lone bye week of the regular season before resuming league play Oct. 17 at North Dakota. Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m. at the Alerus Center in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
NOTES
- South Dakota State leads the all-time series, 8-6
- The road team has won five of the last six matchups
- The Jackrabbits scored on their opening drive of the for the fifth time in six contests this season (four touchdowns, one field goal)
- Josiah Johnson became the first Jackrabbit to post three consecutive 100-yard games on the ground since Isaiah Davis topped the century mark in SDSU’s first three postseason games of the 2023 season
- Johnson has tallied 490 rushing yards over the last three games
- Five of Basinger’s six touchdowns have covered at least 27 yards
- Green’s interception return for touchdown was the first by a Jackrabbit since Adam Bock did the honors from 40 yards out versus Montana in the 2024 FCS playoffs
- SDSU has scored 45 points off 10 opponent turnovers so far this season
- Attendance was 10,171
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