FARGO – NDSU senior receiver RaJa Nelson returned to the lineup and made his presence felt – and how.

Nelson caught the quarterback Cam Miller’s Pass in the corner of the end zone for the game-winning 20-yard touchdown catch Saturday night at the Fargodome in NDSU’s 13-9 victory over South Dakota State in a Missouri Valley Football Conference showdown.

Nelson also caught an 18-yard touchdown pass from Miller with 6:03 left in the second quarter for the game’s first score, giving NDSU a 7-0 lead.

Nelson returned to the Bison lineup after missing last week’s win at Southern Illinois. He has played in just three of eight NDSU games, battling what NDSU coaches call an internal injury.

He finished the game with four catches for 48 yards and two touchdowns.

Bison head coach Tim Polasek has said he will use Nelson carefully because if Nelson plays in four games or fewer, he retains one year of eligibility under the NCAA’s redshirt rules. Nelson played as a true freshman in 2021 and did not take a redshirt year, so he could return for another season next year.

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Chase Mason is the backup quarterback for the reigning Walter Payton Award winner Mark Gronowski For SDSU, that means Mason won’t see many snaps other than mop-up time. But the Jackrabbits have found a way to use the 6-foot-1, 250-pound junior effectively as a runner.

The bison found out the hard way.

On third down-and-1 from the SDSU 34, Mason took a direct snap and went from the right side for 66 yards and SDSU’s first touchdown. It happened a few plays after NDSU took a 7-0 lead on Miller’s TD pass to Nelson.

It was Mason’s second long touchdown run in as many weeks. Last week, he had a 69-yard scoring run in a win over Youngstown State in Brookings. Mason finished the game with 161 yards on five carries.

Mason, from Hurley, South Dakota, began his college career as a center fielder for the University of Nebraska baseball team. He spent one semester at Lincoln before transferring to SDSU in January 2022. He missed the 2022 football season due to a knee injury, but returned in 2023 and played in nine games as the backup dual-threat quarterback for the Jackrabbits.

Before Saturday’s game, Mason had 24 carries for 256 yards and four touchdowns.

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In a scoreless first quarter, SDSU escaped most of the damage after punter Hunter Dustman dropped the center snap and made a 13-yarder near midfield.

But NDSU couldn’t capitalize. Run back Marty Brown managed nine yards on the first play and followed with a three-yarder for a first down and the momentum was clearly in the Bison’s favor.

That has stalled. Miller was stopped for not having a lead on third-and-1, and Brown scored the same on fourth-and-1. The Jacks took over early in the second quarter.

That wasn’t SDSU’s only mistake on special teams.

Dustman missed a 54-yard field goal on SDSU’s first possession when he hit the left upright and the ball bounced back into the end zone.

NDSU blocked an extra point kick after the Jackrabbits’ first touchdown, keeping the Bison lead at 7-6.

The announced attendance of 18,807 was the largest crowd at the Fargodome since 2019, when 18,923 came to watch the Bison play North Dakota. … NDSU starts at middle linebacker Nick Kubitz missed the game after being injured last week at Southern Illinois. … Bison starting cornerback Jailen Duffie not played. He suffered a concussion after last week’s game at Southern Illinois. … SDSU was a 2.5-point favorite, according to ESPN Bet. … NDSU said at least 15 NFL scouts were in attendance at the game, the most at a Bison home game since 25 in the only fall game in 2020 against Central Arkansas. The attractions of this game were Bison quarterback Trey Lance and left tackle Dillon Radunzboth of whom were selected in the 2021 NFL Draft. NDSU left tackle Gray Zabel and quarterback Cam Miller are drawing interest from the NFL, as is the SDSU quarterback Mark Gronowski and center Gus Miller. … Lance, now a backup QB with the Dallas Cowboys, was in the Fargodome and received a loud ovation when he was shown on the big screen. The Cowboys have a bye this week.

Mike McFeely is a columnist for The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. He began working for The Forum in the 1980s while studying journalism at Minnesota State University Moorhead. He has been at the Forum full-time since 1990, except for a six-year hiatus when he hosted a local radio talk show.