BOZEMAN, Mont. -- Unfortunately for University of South Dakota football on Saturday, a trip to Fisco wasn't in the cards.

Behind a big dual-threat performance from Tommy Mellott, who finished with 134 passing yards, 125 rushing yards and three total touchdowns, Mellott led the Bobcats to a 31-17 FCS semifinal win over USD on Saturday at Bobcat Stadium, ending the best season in program history just two wins short of a national championship.

Mellott was all over the field on Saturday. The Walter Payton Award finalist had USD's defense on their heels for nearly the entire game. On the ground, he was always a constant threat to run and the threat of him tucking the ball and running it himself had the Coyotes struggling to stop the run-pass-option consistently.

Despite the defeat, head coach Bob Nielson had to hold back tears when discussing the season USD had, even though it fell short of their ultimate goal of a national championship.

"I'm really proud of our football team," Nielson said. "We've got a group that I think when you started the season, there wouldn't be many people that thought we'd be here. Unfortunately, we got a group that's really disappointed because they wanted to keep playing and thought they showed in the fourth quarter everything that's been good about this football team. The fight, the heart, a bunch of tremendous young men that are a pleasure to coach. Couldn't be prouder of them."

The Coyotes end their best season in program history with an 11-3 mark, while Montana State (15-0) will head to Frisco, Texas to face North Dakota State for the national championship.

But it wasn't just Mellott, there were plenty of little mistakes that plagued the Coyotes. Ill-timed penalties, third-down struggles and miscues that killed drives were all contributed to the loss. Even though USD only had five penalties, multiple came on early down and stunted drives. The Coyotes were only 3-of-10 on third down, including multiple three-and-outs.

Then there were the miscues and the one of the biggest ones came at a horrible time. With USD trailing by 14 points in the redzone and just under three minutes on the clock, Aidan Bouman was unable to handle a bad snap that resulted in a five-yard loss. The Coyotes were unable to pick up the third and long on the ensuing play and turned the ball over on downs.

A big part of some of those mistakes was the home-field advantage. A capacity crowd had the offense struggling to communicate, including the fumble when Bouman went to check the play and Joey Lombard snapped the ball early.

"It was a great crowd," Nielson said. "We worked in the noise through the course of the week, but it caused us a couple of procedure penalties, the one communication error on a bad snap, Aiden was actually checking the play and I think the center thought he was executing a snap count. It's a hard environment to play in ... It's definitely a home-field advantage for them in the playoffs to be in this round."

Those issues stopping Mellott and the Montana State defense started from the get-go. The Bobcats drove 65 yards on their opening drive with little resistance. That would be the theme for most of Montana State's drives in the first half. Mellott's dual-threat abilities, along with the constant threat of big runs kept the Coyote defense on their heels.

The Coyote offense did make up for the defensive struggles to begin. Big runs were the name of the game when it came to USD's scoring. The Bobcats were trying to make Aidan Bouman throw the ball and force him to make plays, but Travis Theis and Charles Pierre both had big touchdown runs of 55 yards and 45 yards, respectively.

But the offense punted twice in the first half, and that was notable because Montana State stayed on the field. The Bobcats had the ball for more than 20 minutes in the first half and kept the Coyotes off the field.

Bouman finished the day with 236 yards on 20-of-29 passing. Theis finished with 110 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown. Pierre finished with 57 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown. Theis also led all receivers with 80 yards on seven catches.