The No. 13 South Dakota State football team bounced back at home and defeated the Missouri State Bears by a score of 49-24.

The game was a tale of two halves. At half time, the game was fairly close as the Jackrabbits lead by a score of 21-17. After halftime, it was all Jackrabbits.

South Dakota State came out of the half, firing on all cylinders. The defense forced a 3 and out and the Jacks countered with a touchdown.

The Bears tried a fake punt at their own 25, but were denied as the Jacks didn’t look fooled.

“There were some poor choices and decisions on my part,” Missouri State Head Coach Dave Steckel said.

The Jackrabbits took advantage of the short field and scored their second touchdown of the 3rd quarter with just 7:50 remaining.

“The third quarter was a huge quarter in the football game to help us with that game and discourage them,” Head Coach John Stiegelmeier said in a post-game press conference.

In the victory, the Jackrabbits looked much improved on the ground, as four different running backs found the end zone. They scored six times on the ground.

Junior Brady Mengarelli led the rushing charge with 10 rushes for 89 yards and two touchdowns. Sophmore Isaac Wallace also had two touchdowns on 13 carries for 38 yards. Mikey Daniel, the freshman who is a Brookings native, scored a three yard rushing touchdown to open scoring for the Jackrabbits. Senior Kyle Paris also scored on a four-yard touchdown.

“I had tears in my eyes as it was really cool for him to get in there because he puts in the work just like all of us,” Brady Mengarelli said of Kyle Paris’ performance in the win.

The Jackrabbits out-rushed their opponents by 93 yards on just six more attempts. As a team, they had 42 rush attempts for 213 yards.

Juniors Jake Wieneke and Dallas Goedert both went over 100 receiving yards for the sixth time this season. The dynamic duo also surpassed 1,000 receiving yards on the year.

Goedert is the first tight end in school history to accomplish such a feat, and Wieneke surpassed the 1,000-yard mark for the third year.

Wieneke also broke the Missouri Valley career yardage record previously set by Dedric Ward of Northern Iowa. Taryn Christion also set the South Dakota State single season total offense record, which was previously set by Brad Nelson.

Sophmore quarterback Taryn Christion threw for 324 yards, a touchdown and an interception. He also had nine carries for 25 yards.

Offensively, the Jackrabbits were 50 percent on third downs and perfect in the red zone.

Despite giving up a 91-yard touchdown to Zac Hoover and a 44-yard touchdown to Malik Earl, the defense managed to keep the Bears offense in check.

“It just comes down to us executing the fundamentals,” Shayne Gottlob said about eliminating the big plays.

The defense was led by senior linebacker Jesse Bobbit and senior safety Nick Mears. Bobbit had nine total tackles, while Mears had six total tackles.

The Jackrabbits recorded three sacks and seven tackles for a loss. The Defense forced five 3-and-outs and eight total punts.

Next up for the Jackrabbits, is the South Dakota showdown with the in-state rival South Dakota Coyotes.

“It’s the most important game for us, because it’s the next game up,” Brady Mengarelli said of the showdown with the Coyotes.