CEDAR FALLS, Iowa —South Dakota State running back Josiah Johnson scored a pair of touchdowns and topped the 1,000-yard mark for the season to lead the fifth-ranked Jackrabbits to a 41-15 victory over Northern Iowa in Missouri Valley Football Conference action Saturday afternoon at the UNI-Dome.
With their third victory in a row, the Jackrabbits improved to 8-2 overall and 5-1 in league play. UNI, which suffered its first home loss of the season, dropped to 4-5 overall and 3-3 in the MVFC.
The Jackrabbits controlled the game throughout, starting by building a 10-0 lead in the first quarter. On SDSU’s second drive of the game, the Jacks logged consecutive big plays as Johnson broke off a 32-yard run up the middle and Jack Smith caught a pass from Chase Mason in the left flat, got a block downfield and scored from 22-yards out.
SDSU began its next drive with a 23-yard pass from Mason to Lofton O’Groske that moved the ball into UNI territory. Tristan Alvano later booted a season-long 50-yard field goal.
The Jackrabbits’ advantage grew to 17-0 in the second quarter behind SDSU’s top-ranked rushing offense. James Basinger tallied consecutive runs of 10 and 16 yards before Johnson put the Jackrabbits deep into the red zone with a 24-yard gain. Johnson completed the eight-play, 73-yard march with a 1-yard touchdown run.
UNI countered late in the half with its best drive of the day, converting on both fourth-and-2 and third-and-11 on its way to the end zone. Jaxon Dailey found Briggs Hughston open for a 13-yard gain on the fourth-down play and Taj Hughes weaved his way through traffic on a screen pass to extend the drive on the next set of downs. Xavier Terrell later scored on a 5-yard touchdown run to complete the 12-play, 75-drive for the Panthers.
SDSU put the game away with touchdowns on each of its possessions in the third quarter. After forcing the Panthers to turn ball over on downs at the SDSU 20-yard line to begin the second half, the Jackrabbits found success through the air when Mason completed a pass for 29 yards to Brayden Delahoyde on third-and-10, which was followed by consecutive completions to Lofton O’Groske for 9 and 37 yards to move the ball to the UNI 5.
Two plays later, Johnson plunged into the end zone from 3 yards out.
Following a 28-yard punt return by Myles Green after the Jackrabbit defense registered a three-and-out, Mason connected with Smith on a 29-yard pitch-and-catch in which Smith stepped out of bounds at the Panther 7. On the second play of the fresh set of downs, Mason connected with Delahoyde in the right flat for an 8-yard score and a 31-7 SDSU lead.
Basinger put the finishing touches on the Jackrabbit victory with a 63-yard touchdown run on SDSU’s first offensive play of the fourth quarter. Basinger finished with 102 yards on only nine carries as he notched his seventh touchdown run of 20 or more yards this season, including his second measuring a career-best 63 yards.
UNI put together a nine-play, 60-yard scoring drive in the fourth quarter that ending on a leaping touchdown catch in the back right corner of the end zone by Hughston from 8 yards out on a pass from Dailey.
Alvano closed out the scoring with a 42-yard field goal midway through the final stanza.
Johnson led the SDSU rushing effort with 109 yards on 14 carries as the Jackrabbits ended the afternoon with a 259-74 advantage in the rushing department and a 467-260 edge in total offense.
Mason completed 10-of-18 passes for 181 yards, with Smith catching a team-high four balls for 62 yards and O’Groske adding three receptions for 69 yards.
For UNI, Dailey was good on 23-of-39 pass attempts for 177 yards. Twelve different Panthers recorded at least one catch, led by Hughes with five receptions for 54 yards.
Jes Krcil notched a game-high 10 tackles for the Jackrabbits, followed by fellow linebackers Cullen McShane and Chase Van Tol with nine and seven tackles, respectively.
Calvin Jaworski led UNI with nine tackles.
UP NEXT
The Jackrabbits close out the road portion of their MVFC schedule Nov. 14 at Southern Illinois. Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m. at Saluki Stadium in Carbondale, Illinois.
NOTES
- UNI leads the all-time series, 33-28-2, although SDSU took a 12-11 lead in the Division I era (since 2004)
- The Jackrabbits have won five game in a row in the series, outscoring UNI by a combined 185-55
- SDSU scored on its opening drive of the second half for the seventh time in 10 games (six touchdowns, one field goal) and has not allowed any points on the opponents’ initial drive of the third quarter so far this season
- The Jackrabbits now hold a 122-21 scoring margin in the third quarter of games this season
- Johnson became the 17th different Jackrabbit running back in program history to rush for 1,000 yards in a season, ending the day with 1,061 yards
- The Jackrabbits have had a 1,000-yard rusher in six consecutive seasons and eight of the last nine
- Johnson topped the 100-yard mark for the fifth time this season, while Basinger reached the century mark for the fourth time in 2026
- SDSU had two running backs top the 100-yard mark in the same game for the third time in 2026, with the tandem of Johnson and Basinger accomplishing the feat for the second time (also vs. Eastern Illinois on Sept. 26)
- The Jackrabbits record two sacks in the game and now have 10 in their last three games
- Alvano’s 15 field goals this season are tied for 10th-most by a Jackrabbit with Parker Douglass (2006) and Jay Carlson (2015)
- Attendance was 10,037
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