VILLANOVA, Pa.—In the quarterfinal round of the FCS playoffs visiting South Dakota State (11-3) scored 21 unanswered points in the second half and advanced in the Division I Football Championship with a 35-21 victory over #5 seed Villanova (10-3) at Villanova Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The result ends an outstanding 2021 season for the Wildcats, who notched their seventh season in school history with 10+ wins and made their deepest playoff run in seven years.
 
Villanova graduate student quarterback Daniel Smith (Leesburg, Va.) had 315 yards of total offense and was responsible for all three Wildcats touchdowns on the day. He was 17-of-26 through the air for 271 yards and two touchdowns while also rushing nine times for a team-high 44 yards and a score. Smith reached a career milestone on his final pass of the day as he ends his collegiate career with exactly 10,000 passing yards. His career totals include 6,529 passing yards at Villanova as well as 3,471 yards from his two seasons as the starting quarterback at Campbell.
 
After taking a 21-14 lead into halftime Villanova received the opening kickoff of the second half, but went three-and-out and punted the ball back to the Jackrabbits who went 71 yards on nine plays to tie the game at 21-21 with 8:37 left in the third quarter. On the ensuing Wildcats possession, Villanova reached only its own 44-yard line before punting once again. The second punt of the quarter traveled only 10 yards before being downed and South Dakota State got the ball back across midfield at the Wildcats 49-yard line.
 
It took just five plays and 49 yards for the Jackrabbits to take the lead for good on a 38-yard touchdown pass from Chris Oladokun to wide receiver Jaxon Janke. Villanova wound up gaining just 60 total yards on three possessions in the third quarter and South Dakota State extended its lead to the final margin on a touchdown run by Isaiah Davis with 8:43 to play in the final period. The Jackrabbits rushed for 266 yards in the contest and finished the day with 418 yards of total offense. South Dakota State was the only FCS team this season to have over 400 total yards against the Wildcats defense.
 
Junior wide receivers Rayjoun Pringle (Dumfries, Va.) and Jaaron Hayek (Wayne, N.J.) each caught a passing touchdown from Smith in the contest. Pringle hauled in five receptions for 119 yards, including a 36-yard catch for a score with 2:20 left in the first quarter which tied the score at 7-7. He notched the fifth 100-yard receiving game of his career and fourth this season. Hayek caught three passes for 65 yards and a touchdown, with his biggest play a 55-yard scoring play with 44 seconds left before halftime which gave Villanova its only lead of the day at 21-14 going into the intermission.
 
The Jackrabbits opened the scoring on a 24-yard touchdown run by Davis with 6:40 left in the first period and went ahead a second time when Janke caught a 10-yard touchdown pass at the 8:09 mark of the second quarter. Each time the Wildcats had an answer, first with Pringle making big plays in the first period and then when Smith scored on a seven-yard touchdown run with 4:18 to play before halftime which tied the score at 14-14.
 
After tying the score for the second time Villanova made its best defensive stand of the day and South Dakota State punted from its own 44-yard line and the Wildcats took over from their own 35 with 1:39 remaining in the half. Smith ran for eight yards, made a two-yard pass to graduate student running back Justin Covington (Bronx, N.Y.) and threw an incompletion before making a 55-yard strike to Hayek for a touchdown and the lead. Covington rushed for 22 yards on the day and wound up a stellar collegiate career ranked sixth in school history with 2,325 career rushing yards.
 
There was no question about who would lead the Villanova defense, as graduate student linebacker Forrest Rhyne (Waynesboro, Pa.) tallied his third game this season and second in as many weeks with 20+ tackles. Rhyne had 14 tackles by halftime along and finished the day with 21 total stops, matching his career-high and likely school record set last week against Holy Cross in the second round of the playoffs. Rhyne finished the season with 154 tackles, the most of any FCS player this season and the seventh-most in a single season since the Wildcats began tracking tackle statistics in 1976. In his final collegiate season Rhyne tallied eight games with 10+ stops and finished his career with 16 such games and a total of 311 total tackles.
 
Graduate student kicker Cole Bunce (San Jose, Calif.) made all three extra points after the Villanova touchdowns and the Wildcats finished the season with 95 points from kicking (17 field goals, 44 PATs). That total ties a school record which was set over 15 games during the 2009 national championship season.
 
Oladokun threw for 152 yards and two touchdowns for South Dakota State while Davis ran 25 times for 174 yards and three scores. Janke had six receptions for 119 yards and the two touchdowns.
 
Villanova is 13-13 all-time in the FCS playoffs and reached the quarterfinal round this season for the seventh time overall and the first time since 2014. Along the way to finishing the year with a 10-3 record, the Wildcats defeated four ranked teams during the season and won their first CAA Football title since 2012.