FARGO, N.D. (AP) - Three-time defending champion North Dakota State had its hands full with South Dakota State Saturday in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. Fortunately for the Bison, those hands belonged to quarterback Carson Wentz and freshman receiver RJ Urzendowski.
Wentz threw a 12-yard TD pass to Urzendowski with 54 seconds left as the Bison rallied to beat the Jackrabbits 27-24.
North Dakota State (12-1) improved to 11-0 all-time at home in the FCS playoffs.
Urzendowski, a freshman with 20 catches and two TDs all season, had four clutch catches for 109 yards and two TDs as the second-ranked Bison advanced to play No. 7 seed Coastal Carolina (12-1) in the FCS quarterfinals Dec. 12 or 13.
Wentz marched the Bison 76 yards in 2:18 for the winning TD after South Dakota State (9-5) had scored to go ahead with 3:18 to play.
“Carson Wentz is a winner,” NDSU coach Chris Klieman said. “RJ Urzendowski is a pretty doggone good football player. He’s not a true freshman in Week 13, he’s a legitimate receiver at the FCS level.”
Tre Dempsey’s interception ended South Dakota State’s hopes in the waning seconds.
Wentz was 14 for 25 for 235 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran for 70 yards and a score. He threw a perfect fade to Urzendowski for the winning score.
“The last couple of weeks he was mad at me and saying I hadn’t been throwing him the ball. I told him today he was going to get an opportunity to make some plays,” Wentz said.
John Crocket ran for 103 of the Bison’s 182 rushing yards.
South Dakota State’s Zach Zenner rushed for 133 yards and two scores. He finished just nine yards short of the FCS record for career rushing, but did become the first player to run for 2,000 yards in three straight years.
It was the first time Zenner rushed for more than 100 yards against NDSU.
Austin Sumner was 13-for-22 for 132 yards and a 3-yard TD pass to Jake Wieneke that gave the Jacks a 24-20 lead late in the game.
Jason Schneider had three catches for 59 yards.
“It’s so tough week in and week out,” Klieman said of the Missouri Valley Football Conference. “I knew this game was going to come down to the fourth quarter. I’m so glad I don’t have to prepare for Zenner, Sumner or Schneider anymore.”
NDSU’s first possession ended with a 27-yard touchdown pass from Wentz to Urzendowski. Wentz later scrambled 28 yards for a touchdown that made it 14-0 with 13:24 left in the half.
But the rest of the second quarter belonged to Zenner, who found himself taking snaps and scored twice in a span of 3:12.
With 8:48 to play, Zenner took a snap and weaved his way 17 yards for a score, capping an 8-play, 74-yard drive helped by a pair of NDSU penalties.
After a defensive stop, Je Ryan Butler returned an NDSU punt 80 yards to the 11, leading to a Zenner 4-yard TD run with 5:36 left to tie it 14-14.
“It literally was the same thing they did in 2011 and they drove it down on us and scored,” Klieman said. “We didn’t prep for that phase of their game because we hadn’t seen it.”
SDSU’s Justin Syrovatka and NDSU’s Adam Keller exchanged field goals in the third quarter to go into the final quarter tied 17-17. Syrovatka’s 33-yard field goal with 6:43 left in the third quarter gave SDSU its first lead.
But Keller’s 29-yarder with 7:45 to go gave NDSU a 20-17 lead and gave him the school career record of 52 field goals.
Sumner led the Jacks on go-ahead drive, helped by a pass interference call - one of 11 for 110 yards against NDSU. He hit Jake Wieneke on a slant pass to go up 24-20 and set the stage for the comeback.
Urzendowski’s 29-yard catch kept the Bison game-winning drive alive.
“There definitely was no panic in the huddle. It was just another game,” Urzendowski said.
Urzendowski had a 41-yard catch that led to Keller’s fourth-quarter field goal.
“RJ was huge,” Wentz said. “It’s amazing, a true freshman coming into a situation like this.”
SDSU finished with 275 yards of total offense, the first time in five weeks it had less than 500 yards.
The Jackrabbits have been to the playoffs four straight years and lost in the second round for the fourth straight year.
“We were blessed to be in the playoffs and we had a good win at Montana State,” SDSU coach John Stiegelmeier said. “It’s a hard road. We have to go further. I don’t think we’ve taken a step. We finished in the second round again. I don’t care who you play, you’ve got to beat somebody to get to Frisco, Texas, and we didn’t do it.”
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