The 3-0 Jackrabbits will look to extend their perfect record to four games as they host the Mercyhurst Lakers this saturday at 2 p.m.
Last week the Jacks had a bye. In their previous game, SDSU beat Drake in the beef bowl 37-21 in a game of firsts for many. Former Nebraska Cornhusker Alex Bullock and Fordham transfer Julius Loughridge both scored their first career touchdowns as Jackrabbits. James Basinger and Corey Blair Jr. ran in their first career touchdowns as well.
Mercyhurst, out of Erie, Pennsylvania is 1-3 on the year after losing to Montana State 17-0 last week. Their lone win on the season was against the 2-2 New Haven Chargers, who they beat 48-14.
SOUTH DAKOTA STATE
The number two ranked Jacks sit behind NDSU in the FCS rankings, with the Bison earning 25 out of 26 first place votes. SDSU is averaging 29 points a game and has held opponents to an average of 16 points. Their highest scoring offensive game was against Montana State, whom the Jacks beat 30-24 in overtime. It was also the highest number of points the defense has let up this year.
Quarterback Chase Mason will look to eclipse the 600 passing yards this Saturday. He currently sits at 589. The former Nebraska baseball player has thrown for five touchdowns this season and a rushing touchdown. Mason is second on the team in rushing yards with 115 on 40 attempts, with an average of 2.9 yards a carry. As a backup quarterback last season, he had 464 yards on 46 attempts.
The number of sacks allowed has declined as the season has continued. In SDSU’s first game of the season against Sacramento State, Mason was sacked a total of seven times. Against Montana State, that figure was four. In their matchup against Drake last week, the team allowed zero sacks. The decreasing figure reflects the veteran leadership in the offensive lineman room, tackles Quinten Christensen and Sam Hagen being team captains.
Running back Julius Loughridge before transferring to SDSU was a first-team all Patriot-league running back in back-to-back seasons with Fordham. He has continued to perform like a player befitting those honors, having rushed for 431 yards on 65 carries.
Lofton O’Groske has become Mason’s number one target through the air. Against Montana State he had two touchdowns in the biggest moments of the game. He scored once in the fourth to give the team the lead, and once in overtime to tie it. O’Groske has 279 receiving yards on 23 receptions and has three touchdowns this season.
MERCYHURST
The Lakers have given up 104 points this season which, while sounds pretty bad, is partly due to their 49-28 point loss to Sacramento State. Their next highest point total they have given up in a game was against Youngstown State, where they gave up 24. They have held teams to a respectable sub 150 passing yards a game average. Rushing though has been a problem, the Lakers letting up 204 yards per game. They also have only had a single sack this entire season, belonging to Corey Cobb Jr.
Offensively, they have scored 91 points this season for an average of 22.75 while averaging nearly 300 yards of passing offense per game.
Their starting quarterback is Adam Urena, a 5-9 graduate student from Chino Hills, California. This season he has thrown for six touchdowns while also throwing for five interceptions and currently has a completion percentage of 67.1 percent. He is coming off of a year where he threw for 2773 yards and 31 touchdowns. In an era where shorter quarterbacks typically use their mobility as a way to offset their smaller stature, Urena is not much of a rushing threat. Over his career, he has -388 yards rushing, this season that number is -33. He has been sacked seven times during this season.
“He’s not the biggest guy but sometimes those are the guys that have a little bit of an additional chip on their shoulder, especially at that position,” head coach Dan Jackson said. “You can see that in their quarterback. He’s really sharp, he knows where he is going with the football, he’s got good clean reads.”
Brian Trobel is Mercyhurst’s leading rusher this season with a total of 265 yards on the season. He is averaging 66.25 of the team’s 119.5 average rushing yards a game. Jameir Gamble is the team’s second leading rusher, averaging 29.25 a contest.
Three players have emerged as Urena’s top receivers, Dylan Evans, Rylan Davison and Joe Kerbacher. Evans has 329 receiving yards, Davison has 254 and Kerbacher has 134. Both Evans and Davison have two receiving touchdowns this year.
Despite the records of both teams going into the game, Jackson has acknowledged the talent of both the players and the coaching staff of Mercyhurst and believes in the team’s game plan.
“It’s clear their identity and how they want to get the game to the fourth quarter close and see if they can make enough plays to win it,” Jackson said. “And you know I’ve been a part of programs that that was the formula and it’s an effective one.”
