Tommies Blog: No. 7 St. Thomas Faces Big Test In Bethel
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Practice should be intense for the No. 7-ranked St. Thomas football team as it prepares for its biggest game of the season so far Saturday afternoon.
The Tommies improved to 6-0 on the season and 4-0 in MIAC play after a 78-7 win over Hamline on Saturday in their Homecoming game. As the score would suggest, it was a dominating performance for St. Thomas in all phases.
St. Thomas had a 50-0 lead at the half and had 10 different players score 11 touchdowns on the day. Quarterback John Gould three for 293 yards and four touchdowns on the day. Jordan Roberts had 107 rushing yards and two touchdowns, and Nick Waldvogel had a career-high 155 receiving yards with a touchdown on the day. Gould threw three of his four touchdown passes in the first quarter as the Tommies raced out to an early lead and never looked back.
St. Thomas collected 595 yards in total offense and limited the Pipers to 219, including a 1-for-14 mark on third down.
Coach Glenn Caruso was all smiles after, as he improved to 8-0 in Homecoming games and 46-4 over 50 games at O'Shaughnessy Stadium.
The better news for St. Thomas: The Tommies feature the No. 1 offense in the MIAC and the top defense. On offense, they're averaging 551 yards of total offense per game and more than 55 points on the season. Their defense has been equally as dominant, allowing just 6.8 points per game and 209 total yards.
The St. Thomas victory, coupled with a Gustavus loss at St. John's Saturday, put the Tommies alone atop the MIAC at 4-0. There are four teams right behind them (Concordia, Gustavus, Bethel and St. John's) with one loss each.
The Tommies will need the dominance to continue, with Bethel making the trip to O'Shaughnessy Stadium this week. The Royals are 4-2 on the season with losses to Wartburg and Concordia-Moorhead, but they're playing for their playoff lives the rest of the season.
The Royals have been a dominant team in their victories, scoring at least 35 points in all four wins and at least 41 in three of the four. Bethel had a bye last week, but beat Hamline 41-7 on Oct. 10. St. Thomas and Bethel have formed quite the competitive rivalry in football in recent years. Bethel has won the last two meetings and St. Thomas has a 4-3 edge in the last seven match-ups.
In 2010, St. Thomas beat Bethel 10-6, but the Royals got revenge in the NCAA Division III Playoffs with a 12-7 victory.
Quarterback Erik Peterson finally graduated after giving St. Thomas trouble for several years. Now, the Royals are led by freshman Trey Anderson, who is throwing for about 118 yards per game and has nine touchdowns on the season. Bethel is more dangerous in the run game with one of the better 1-2 punches in the MIAC. Jesse Moeckly is by far the team's leading tackler with 43 on the season, including 8.5 tackles for a loss and 4.5 sacks.
Marshall Klitzke leads the Royals with 106 rushing yards per game and eight touchdowns on the season. Bridgeport Tusler is averaging about 60 yards per game and has two scores on an offense that averages 36 points per game. Bethel is averaging 237 yards rushing per game.
Bethel has been equally as impressive on the defensive side of the ball. The Royals are allowing about 16 points per game on average. Opponents get about 324 yards per game on the Bethel defense, and 145 of that comes on the ground.
St. Thomas will have to win the battle in the trenches on both sides of the ball to come out with the victory. It will be interesting to see how the Tommies' defensive attacks a freshman quarterback. St. Thomas has been successful on defense this season when the opposition's quarterback has been on the run, good examples being the wins over St. John's and Augsburg.
It should be a great game and it's always fun to see two quality programs take the field with a lot at stake. Tune into Newsradio 830 WCCO at about 1 p.m. as Dave Lee will have the play-by-play and Eric Nelson will have color commentary along with Fritz Waldvogel from the sidelines.