Holy Cross prepared for FCS playoff battle with No. 1 seed South Dakota State

Holy Cross faces a mighty task taking on South Dakota State, the top-ranked team in the country and the No. 1 seed in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) playoffs, but, as usual, the Crusaders are more than up for the challenge.

“It’s just a great opportunity,” junior quarterback Matthew Sluka said. “If you want to be the best, you have the beat the best. Having the opportunity to go out there and play them is huge. It’s the next step in getting to where we want to be – in the national championship.”

The No. 8 seed Crusaders (12-0) play the Jackrabbits (11-1) in quarterfinal action at noon Saturday at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium in Brookings, S.D.

HC made this same 1,500-mile trip 20 months ago, for a first-round playoff game against the Jackrabbits during the spring 2021 COVID season. SDSU, the top seed that year, too, beat the Crusaders, 31-3, and went on to fall to Sam Houston, 23-21, in the national title game.

“A lot of the names (on SDSU’s roster), unfortunately, are the same,” Holy Cross coach Bob Chesney said.

Among them are junior tight end Tucker Kraft, an NFL Draft prospect; twin senior wideouts Jaxon and Jadon Janke, who combined for three touchdowns in the ’21 game against HC; and junior running back Isaiah Davis, who has rushed for 1,000 yards and 12 TDs.

Kraft, senior tight end Zach Heins, and the Janke brothers have caught 17 of sophomore quarterback Mark Gronowski’s 19 touchdown passes.

Senior defensive linemen Caleb Sanders and Reece Winkelman lead South Dakota State on that side of the ball. The Jackrabbits rank first in rushing defense (70.8 yards per game), second in total defense (249.8 ypg) and third in scoring defense (14.7 points per game).

“We’re all going to see one of the best defenses in the entire country,” Chesney said. “This quarterback is going to find every little thing that’s open. They are everything you would expect from the No. 1 team in the country. There is no relief. We have to give 60 straight minutes of everything we’ve got.”

After losing to FBS foe Iowa, 7-3, in its 2022 opener, the Jackrabbits have run off 11 straight wins. SDSU manhandled Delaware, 42-6, in last week’s second-round playoff game.

Chesney, of course, reviewed his meticulous notes on the play sheet from the 2021 game. Missed opportunities, including a couple of potential downfield touchdown passes early, and miscues, like the muffed punt that led to a third-quarter SDSU touchdown, hurt the Crusaders.

“Any time you make a mistake,” Chesney said, “it will be amplified. It will be taken advantage of. That’s the thing great teams do.”

Holy Cross has done a tremendous job protecting the ball this season. The Crusaders lost a fumble for the first time all year in last week’s 35-19 win over New Hampshire, and Sluka has thrown just three interceptions. HC leads the FCS with a plus-18 turnover differential.

“That’s something we’ve had an emphasis on all year long and executed,” Chesney said. “Now, we just have to continue to do that. We can’t give them extra chances.”

For the first time in a while, Holy Cross enters a game as a heavy underdog (18 points).

“All year,” Chesney said, “we’ve dealt with being the one with a big bull’s eye on our back. It’s really, really hard to go in (to every game) and do what you are supposed to do. We understand we are not going to get a whole lot of respect going into this game. We understand probably the way the outside world looks at us. That is certainly motivation and fuel for us this weekend.”

ESPN to broadcast Holy Cross playoff game

Three of this weekend’s FCS quarterfinal games are Friday night, meaning Holy Cross and South Dakota State will take center stage on Saturday. ESPN is televising the game.

“We are the only show in town come high noon on Saturday,” Chesney said. “It is an opportunity for us to be on the national stage and for the whole world to watch and see the type of football we play and the way we do it as well.”

Army-Navy, at 3 p.m., is the only FBS game on Saturday.

Holy Cross celebrated the Crusaders at the Hart Center during the women’s basketball game against Stonehill Thursday night, and there will be a send-off for the team at 8:30 a.m. Friday outside the Luth Athletic Complex as players board the bus and head to T.F. Green Airport in Providence for their charter flight.

South Dakota State will see an improved Sluka

Holy Cross junior quarterback Matthew Sluka made the second start of his career when the Crusaders played at South Dakota State in the first round of the FCS playoffs during the spring 2021 COVID season.

Sluka completed 10 of 21 pass attempts for 76 yards and rushed 13 times for 22 yards in the 31-3 loss.

“It doesn’t feel that long ago,” Sluka said before Tuesday’s practice at Kuzniewski Field, “but then again it does, because I’ve definitely developed as a player since that time.”

As a highly regarded freshman that spring, Sluka made his debut off the bench in the second half against Fordham, and with 145 rushing yards and two touchdowns, led the Crusaders past the Rams, 34-24. Sluka earned his first start a couple of weeks later in the Patriot League championship game at Bucknell.

Sluka continued to show his mobility last season, and this year developed into a complete quarterback. He is HC’s leading rusher with 1,021 yards, and he ranks second in the PL with 26 touchdown passes.

“It’s kind of exciting to get back out there and see where I’m at,” Sluka said. “Obviously, the first time we didn’t do so good out there, but hopefully this time it goes a little better.”

In the third quarter of last week’s game against New Hampshire, on first-and-10 from the Wildcats’ 17-yard line, Sluka took the ball up the middle on a designed run. Near the 10, UNH safety Max Oxendine, leading with the crown of his helmet, drove into Sluka and knocked his helmet off. Sluka kept running into the end zone.

Officials waved off the touchdown due to an HC chop block penalty, and, after a review, called Oxendine for targeting. He was ejected from the game.

“I was a little stunned (when my helmet came off),” Sluka said, “and I wasn’t sure what to do. I was like, ‘Do I just go score? Do I not?’ For me, the safest play was to just go score.”

T&G photographer Rick Cinclair captured an awesome image of the helmetless Sluka.

Spence shines on special teams for HC

Junior Terrence Spence had HC’s FCS-leading eighth blocked punt of the season in the first quarter of last week’s game, and Chesney said the play was textbook.

Late in the first quarter, Spence flew off the edge, dove and got a piece of the ball as New Hampshire punter Sean Lehane let it go. Senior Devin Haskins recovered and returned the ball 22 yards to the UNH 24.

“It comes with preparation,” Spence said. “We did a really good job the entire week of going over that play. It was a specific punt they had. We saw it on film a couple times and we were like, ‘When they run that, we have to take advantage of that opportunity.’ That’s what we did. I was happy to come through for my team and get us in field position to win the game.”

HC drove to the UNH 8, but senior kicker Derek Ng missed a 26-yard field goal in the opening seconds of the second quarter.

It was Spence’s third blocked punt of the year.

“That was as fundamentally sound of a blocked punt as you will ever see,” Chesney said. “It was just awesome to watch Terrence time that up, stay onsides and execute it. We talk a lot about when that punter’s leg goes back, he is fully committed, and now you can be fully committed. When you time it up, when the punter gets on one leg and you get on one leg and begin the process of diving, (Spence’s play) was like clinic.

“We could draw that up and talk about that for hours with coaches,” Chesney said, “and give them the idea of exactly how to do it, what foot he leapt off of, where he understood the launch point of that ball to be. The whole thing was really, really exciting.”

Haskins leads the team with four blocked punts. He blocked a punt in four straight games from Sept. 24-Oct. 22.

“As soon as I saw the ball on that (left) hash, I knew what call it was,” Haskins said, “and (Spence) is one of those guys that I knew was going to get there, so I was watching the punter, and as soon as I saw him block it, I just went for the ball.”

Senior John Smith has HC’s other blocked punt.

Under special teams coordinator Drew Canan, HC’s units have excelled this season. Early in the first quarter of the UNH game, Haskins recovered a Holy Cross punt that hit off a Wildcats player.

“It’s a special group,” Haskins said. “(Special teams) is something we take pride in, and we love making plays out there.”

Extra points

The winner of HC-SDSU will face the winner of Friday’s game between No. 4 seed Montana State and No. 5 seed William & Mary in the national semifinals Dec. 16 or 17. … New England Patriots rookie running back Pierre Strong Jr., a fourth-round draft pick out of South Dakota State, had 13 carries for 78 yards and two receptions for 23 yards in the 2021 FCS playoff game against Holy Cross. … The most famous Patriots player out of South Dakota State was, of course, kicker Adam Vinatieri. … Holy Cross is seeking to become the first Patriot League team since Colgate in 2003 to advance to the national semifinals. The Raiders beat Florida Atlantic, and fell to Delaware in the NCAA Division 1-AA championship game.

—Contact Jennifer Toland at jennifer.toland@telegram.com. Follow her on Twitter @JenTolandTG.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Holy Cross prepared for FCS playoff battle with No. 1 seed South Dakota State