South Dakota State quarterback Taryn Christion usually impacts the game with his throwing, but on Saturday he led the Jackrabbits to a 36-7 Hobo Day victory against the Youngstown State Penguins with his legs.

Christion had only 78 yards passing but picked up 89 yards on the ground. He also had two rushing touchdowns.

The Jacks as a team had 253 yards rushing with freshman C.J. Wilson leading the way with 119 yards and a touchdown. Wilson stepped up after senior running back Isaac Wallace went down with a leg injury.

“We just kept staying with the run game and kept working,” Wilson said.

Head coach John Stiegelmeier did not give specifics for the injury Wallace sustained but did say he is likely out for the season.

“I’ve never seen an injury like that in my 31 years of coaching,” he said.

The Jacks gave up 569 yards of offense and 51 points to Indiana State last weekend. Today, they held the Penguins 344 total yards of offense.

“Coach put us in a position to win. We played well last week too, but we just didn’t execute and this week we just did our job a lot better,” said senior linebacker Dalton Cox.

Cox played a part in what was probably the most important play of the game when he recovered a blocked field goal and ran it back to the Youngstown State 25 yard line. The Jacks would score two plays later on a 23-yard touchdown pass from Christion to Cade Johnson.

“Our entire team knows that special teams affect the football game,” Stiegelmeier said.  

During the game, Christion broke the Missouri Valley Football Conference record for total offense in a career. He now has 10,986 total yards of offense.

The Jacks improved to 4-1 overall and 2-1 in the MVFC on the season and will head to Cedar Falls, Iowa, next weekend to take on the Northern Iowa Panthers.