Tommies Blog: Rival St. John's Next After 57-14 Playoff Win
The No. 4-ranked St. Thomas football team knew what was at stake Saturday if it beat La Verne (CA) in its first round NCAA Playoff game.
First of all, a victory guaranteed another week of football. It also most likely meant a rematch with their biggest MIAC rival. That's exactly the stage this week after the Tommies routed the Leopards 57-14 to improve to 11-0 on the season. On the other side of the bracket, St. John's beat Dubuque University 51-7 in what was for the Johnnies a rematch of their Week 1 victory.
St. Thomas will host St. John's at 12 noon Saturday in St. Paul with a trip to the quarterfinals on the line. They are two of just 16 teams left in the bracket. For as many times as they've faced each other, the Tommies and Johnnies have never met in the NCAA Playoffs.
St. Thomas didn't get off to the fastest start against La Verne on Saturday, but that's probably to be expected when you're in an elimination game against a team you've never faced and barely heard of. But at the end of the day, the numbers were similar to the way the Tommies have handled opponents most of the season.
John Gould threw for 310 yards and two touchdowns, while Jordan Roberts rushed 19 times for 75 yards and a score. St. Thomas collected 586 yards of total offense and limited the Leopards to 131 yards passing on the day. Tucker Trettel also gave St. Thomas a spark in the second half with eight carries for 67 yards and two touchdowns as the Tommies pulled way for the win.
St. Thomas led 21-0 at half and added 36 points in the second half. Charlie Dowdle led the St. Thomas receivers with six catches for 113 yards, including a touchdown on a 67-yard play. The other passing touchdown went to Roberts on a 36-yard play in the second quarter.
The Tommies defense allowed just 10 first downs for the entire contest. Travis Sparks-Jackson did have a big day for the Leopards with 34 carries for 155 yards and a touchdown.
Now the stage is set as two of the biggest rivals in Division III football meet Saturday for a trip to the quarterfinals. There won't be a lot of secrets when it comes to how St. Thomas and St. John's play each other. Sure, there will be some wrinkles put in the game plans during practice this week. But Glenn Caruso and Gary Fasching know each other too well for there to be too many surprises this week.
The two teams feature the top two running backs in the MIAC and two of the better quarterbacks. Back in Week 3, St. Thomas limited Sam Sura to 74 yards on 25 carries, though he did score two touchdowns. But Roberts was the story of the game for St. Thomas with 31 carries for 230 yards and four touchdowns, three in the second half, in a 35-14 win for St. Thomas.
Roberts wasn't afraid to run into the teeth of the St. John's defense, and in many cases ran right over them. For the season, Roberts is averaging more than 137 rushing yards per game and has 25 touchdowns on the season.
On defense, St. Thomas sacked quarterback Nick Martin four times even though he did pass for 252 yards in that game. The Tommies will be looking to contain his two top receivers in Josh Bungum and Nick Simon. But largely, stopping the St. John's offense starts with containing Sura, which will be tough as he rarely goes down on first contact.
For the season, St. John's is scoring about 40 points per game and rushing for about 220 yards. That number is led by Sura's 142 yards per game and 23 touchdowns. Martin is passing for 173 yards per game and has 23 touchdowns on the season.
The game will be won based on the line of scrimmage and which running back has the more productive game. It will be interesting to see of Caruso opens up the playbook at all in this game after running so well against the Johnnies the first time around. St. John's will definitely key on stopping Roberts and the St. Thomas run game, so there could be chances to go downfield in the passing game.
St. Thomas is leading the nation in scoring at 56.5 points per game and also features one of the top scoring defenses in the country, giving up 8.6 points per game. The Tommies will be relying on their rushing defense, which allows about 82 yards per game, to contain Sura.
The winner of Saturday's game will face the Thomas More/Wabash winner on Dec. 5. If the Tommies advance, the game would likely be in St. Paul.
Tune into Newsradio 830 WCCO at about 12 noon Saturday as Dave Lee will have the play-by-play and Eric Nelson will provide color commentary along with Fritz Waldvogel from the sidelines.