BROOKINGS, S.D.--No. 3/5-ranked North Dakota State rushed for four touchdowns and Ryan Smith returned a punt 41 yards for a score as the Bison remained undefeated with a 38-14 victory over South Dakota State on Saturday, Oct. 22, in a Missouri Valley Football Conference game played before 14,823 spectators at Coughlin-Alumni Stadium.

It was North Dakota State's first win in Brookings since the 1999 season. It was the second straight season the Bison claimed the Dakota Marker Trophy.

North Dakota State (7-0, 4-0 MVFC) is scheduled to host 2nd-ranked Northern Iowa (6-1, 5-0 MVFC) at 3:07 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29, in the Fargodome. UNI defeated Southern Illinois 17-10 on Saturday.

Smith's return was part of a 21-point fourth quarter for North Dakota State. The Bison had four 1-yard touchdown runs in the game -- two from quarterback Brock Jensen and one each from D.J. McNorton and Derrick Lang -- and 149 yards rushing as a team.

Smith's punt return was the first for NDSU since 2006 when Travis White went 84 yards against South Dakota State in the Fargodome. Smith added a career-high six passes for 56 yards. Warren Holloway caught seven passes for 66 yards. Holloway has 124 career receptions and moved past Tim Strehlow (121, 1996-99) on the NDSU all-time list.

Jensen was also 20 of 25 passing for 178 yards. He topped his career-high in completions for the second straight week. Jensen completed pases to six different receivers.

North Dakota State's defense stopped two drives inside the Red Zone in the first half including the opening SDSU march to the Bison 1 yard line. Both of those drives resulted in missed field goals. Linebacker Travis Beck led NDSU with a career-high 10 tackles in his first collegiate start.

South Dakota State (2-6, 1-4 MVFC) had more total yardage than the Bison, 349 to 327, but had only a 1-yard touchdown run by Zach Zenner and a 7-yard TD pass from Jordan Thomas to Jason Schneider with 4 seconds remaining to show for it.