The South Dakota State football team opened its season with a 20-3 win in front of 19,163 fans at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium.

Some standout performers for the Jacks included new starting quarterback Chase Mason. Mason threw for 190 yards and a touchdown on 17 completions.

“Absolutely, yes. 100% yes,” Mason said when asked if waiting for his turn to be the starting quarterback was worth it. “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the country right now besides Brookings, South Dakota, with these guys. So, it’s awesome.”

Someone who took a lot of pressure off of Mason was running back Julius Loughridge. Loughridge ran for 159 yards on 22 carries, averaging more than seven yards per carry.

Sophomore Lofton O’Groske was also a big part of the Jacks’ success on offense, recording five catches for 76 yards while adding 31 rushing yards and a touchdown.

Junior linebacker Cullen McShane led the team in tackles with seven, including one tackle for loss.

Chase Van Tol also made his mark on the game, recording four tackles and one sack. Van Tol was ejected in the fourth quarter for targeting, so he will not play the first half of next week’s game.

Jaden Rashada, in his first game as a Hornet, completed 11 of 27 passes for more than 100 yards while throwing one interception.

The Sacramento State run game was almost nonexistent. Their leading rusher was Rodney Hammon Jr., who rushed for 12 yards.

“It’s easy to play football when you got a defense like that that lets up three points.” Mason said. “I know we have a chance every single game, no matter who we play, with our defense.”

The Jackrabbits’ first drive of the season started as a success, with quarterback Chase Mason showing off his legs, scrambling for 10 yards and getting the Jackrabbits’ second first down of the game. The drive was then helped when Alex Bullock drew a pass interference penalty on Devin Wright to give SDSU another 15 yards.

The next play was another flag on the Hornets, this time an offside penalty to move the ball to the Hornets’ 26-yard line. The offense then showed its creativity with a reverse to Lofton O’Groske, which moved the Jacks to the 2-yard line.

The drive came to an end when running back Julius Loughridge fumbled and it was recovered on the 5-yard line by Sacramento State.

The first Sacramento State possession consisted of two incompletions and a run that went for a loss of yardage. After a quick three-and-out, the Hornets punted.

The Jacks wasted no time, with the first play of the drive being a 44-yard pass from Chase Mason to O’Groske that brought the Jacks to the 3-yard line. The Jacks stalled in the red zone and settled for a field goal to take a 3-0 lead.

Another three-and-out for Sacramento State brought the punter onto the field. He punted it to Isiah Garcia-Castaneda, who muffed the punt, and No. 4 for Sacramento State jumped on it at the 23-yard line. After three more Sacramento State offensive plays, Grant Meadors came on the field and tied the game at 3-3 with a 36-yard field goal.

The next Jackrabbit possession started with a sack for a loss of 2 yards. But on second and third down, Mason found two different receivers in Greyton Gannon and Alex Bullock to move the chains. A couple of plays later, the Jacks found themselves in another third-down situation. This time, it was Mason’s legs that got the first down after he gained 8 yards on third-and-7. The graduate receiver, Alex Bullock, got his second chain-moving catch on a crucial fourth-and-2 to end the first quarter.

One play later, Greyton Gannon brought the Jacks to the 17-yard line with a 19-yard gain on a pass from Chase Mason. The drive ended with a 4-yard touchdown pass from Mason to tight end Andrew Gustad. The extra point by Eli Stader made it a 10-3 Jacks lead.

After a drive that saw the first first-down of the game for the Hornets, they found themselves in a fourth-and-2 situation when backup quarterback Cardell Williams was tackled for a loss by Kytan Fyfe and Reis Kirschenman.

The Jackrabbits took over from their own 31-yard line, and on the first two plays of the drive, Julius Loughridge showed his power, gaining 10 yards and then 37 yards on back-to-back runs. The drive was capped off by a 3-yard end-around touchdown to Lofton O’Groske on fourth-and-2.

The Hornets continued to turn the ball over, this time on a fumble by running back Savion Red. The ball was forced out by Joe Ollman and recovered by Reis Kirschenman.

SDSU took over on the Hornets’ 28-yard line. The Jacks eventually worked the ball to the 4-yard line. On third down, a high snap caused Chase Mason to run back to the 20-yard line to fall on the ball, forcing a 37-yard field goal attempt that was missed by Stader.

On the next possession, the Jackrabbit defense forced a fourth-and-8. The Hornets’ offense stayed on the field and Jaden Rashada threw a deep pass that was intercepted at the Jacks’ 6-yard line by Jayden Oliver.

The Jackrabbits tried to score before halftime, but after a 16-yard scramble by Chase Mason, time expired. The Jacks went into halftime leading 17-3.

The third quarter was not as eventful as the first two. The Hornets started with the ball in the second half, and their three possessions in the quarter all ended in punts. The Jackrabbits possessed the ball twice in the quarter, with those drives also ending in punts.

One struggle the team felt throughout the course of the game, were not scoring when reaching the red zone.

“I think it was just little mistakes,” O’Groske said. “And we can clean that up easily. Like I have no doubt in our offense.”

The Jackrabbits’ first possession in the fourth quarter is when they finally got some momentum going. After multiple solid runs from Julius Loughridge, SDSU found itself in solid field goal range before Chase Mason was sacked on third down. On fourth down, SDSU missed a 48-yard field goal attempt.

After a Sacramento State drop in the end zone on third down, the Hornets went for it on fourth down and turned the ball over.

The Jacks took this momentum and drove down the field after a 32-yard run by Julius Loughridge. The drive eventually stalled, and Eli Stader made a 28-yard field goal. The Jacks took a 20-3 lead, which they held for the rest of the game.

Up next

The Jackrabbits’ schedule doesn’t get much easier, as they head to Bozeman, Mont. to take on the Montana State Bobcats, where their season ended in the 2021 playoffs.

Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. Central time and can be seen on Midco Sports 2 and ESPN+.