Quarterback Tommy Mellott ran for 125 yards and two touchdowns and threw for another score, leading Montana State over South Dakota 31-17 in an FCS semifinal game Saturday at Bobcat Stadium.

The Bobcats, 15-0, will face North Dakota State in the Division I Football Championship in Frisco, Texas, on Jan. 6. It's a rematch up of the 2021 title game, which NDSU won; the Bison beat two-time defending national champion South Dakota State 28-21 in Saturday's first semifinal.

Mellott was 8 of 17 passing for 134 yards, including a 34-yard dime to Taco Dowler for the day's first touchdown. But it was his legs that made the difference: He scored from 5 yars out late in the first quarter; then he had a game-breaking play early in the third.

Facing a third-and-1 at the USD 41-yard line, Mellott dropped the shot gun snap, recovered it and found the middle wide open. He shot the gap, leapt out of a tackle, barely held his balance and cruised in to put the Cats up 31-14.

The game was far from over: The Coyotes (11-3) gave up the ball on downs twice in the fourth quarter, once at MSU's 2-yard line and again at the 20.

The game wasn't truly in the books until South Dakota, after forcing a third straight Bobcat punt, tried a hook-and-ladder and fumbled with 1:41 left. Brody Grebe recovered for MSU at the Coyote 24-yard line. Mellott came on and knelt out the clock.

Adam Jones added 66 yards on 18 carries for MSU, and Scottre Humphrey gained 35 yards on 11 attempts, including a 1-yard scoring run at 8;24 of the second quarter.

That gave MSU a 21-14 lead it wouldn't relinquish.

South Dakota's Aidan Bouman was 20 of 29 passing for 236 yards. Eighty of those yards went to bruising back Travis Theis, who also ran for 110 yards on 14 carries.

Theis had a 55-yard run that tied the game 7-7 in the first quarter; Charles Pierre, Jr. Had a 45-yard run that knotted the score at 14-14 on the first play of the second quarter.