Tommies Blog: Rival St. John's Visits St. Paul Saturday
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – If you attend college at St. Thomas or St. John's, the weekend where the two squads square off on the football field represents everything that's right about college athletics.
It will be an electric atmosphere on Saturday as the No. 10-ranked Tommies (2-0) host the Johnnies at O'Shaughnessy Stadium. With a forecast of close to 80 degrees and sunny skies expected, it will be a packed house as more than 10,000 fans are anticipated to represent the two schools. Nearly 11,000 fans attended last year's contest in St. Paul, where Paul Graupner missed a field goal as time expired and St. John's escape with the upset victory.
St. John's will be playing for its MIAC season after losing its conference opener last Saturday to Concordia-Moorhead 23-14. It's highly unlikely for any MIAC team with two conference losses to have any shot at the NCAA Playoffs. St. Thomas learned that the hard way last year with close defeats to the Johnnies and Bethel.
St. Thomas had a great shot to win last year's match-up despite five turnovers. This year, the Tommies are coming off a bye week after beating UW-La Crosse 46-0 in Week 2. For a lot of the players in the game, they know each other well from being opponents and in some cases even teammates in high school football and other sports.
The Johnnies are in an interesting spot for their second game of the MIAC season and fourth overall. Nick Martin started the two non-conference games at quarterback, but Johnny Benson started in last week's loss to the Cobbers. In his first start of the season at quarterback, Benson was 15-of-25 passing for 153 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. Both touchdown passes came with the Johnnies trailing the Cobbers 16-0 in the third quarter. J.T. Ford and Josh Bunghum lead the St. John's wide receiving corps with a combined 19 catches for about 156 yards in three games.
But the St. John's offensive attack centers around running back Sam Sura, who is averaging 180 yards rushing per game and has five touchdowns on the season. He had 17 carries for 93 yards against Concordia, but failed to reach the end zone. Sura is leading the MIAC in rushing and is second in the league in scoring.
St. John's is averaging 362 yards of total offense per game so far this season, with about 246 of those on average coming in the rushing attack. The Johnnies are scoring about 24 points per game, which is good for seventh in the MIAC.
For the St. Thomas defense, which has lately been one of the best in the country against the run, the key Saturday will be stopping Sura in the run game. The Tommies lead the MIAC in scoring defense, allowing about 8.5 points per game, and in total defense, allowing about 263 yards per game.
The St. John's defense, which currently ranks third in the MIAC in points allowed and fifth in total offense, has always had success at the line of scrimmage, putting pressure on the quarterback and stopping the run. The Johnnies are led by Carter Hanson's 26 tackles in three games. Reid Bjorklund has 19 tackles, and Garrett Ackerman and Bruce London have 18 each. St. John's also has four interceptions. The Johnnies are allowing a little more than 130 yards rushing per game, which should give St. Thomas a great test. Quarterback Matt O'Connell and running back Jack Kaiser lead an offensive attack that runs for about 246 yards per game.
There's also an interesting match-up between the St. Thomas passing game and the St. John's defense. The Tommies are passing for about 200 yards per game, while the Johnnies allow about 170 yards through the air. O'Connell has one passing touchdown, while John Gould had two touchdown passes against UW-La Crosse in relief of O'Connell, who was injured in the first half of that game and held out for precautionary reasons.
St. Thomas is second in the MIAC in offense, scoring about 34 points per game. The Tommies also average about 447 yards of total offense per game, good for third in the MIAC.
You can look at all the numbers you want for this game, but the rivalry is the better story. For four quarters, it's fierce on the field. But when the final whistle horn sounds, bitter rivals shake hands and become friends again. St. Thomas/St. John's provides arguably the best atmosphere in all of Division III football. It'll be the 83rd time the two schools have met in football, with St. John's leading the all-time series 50-31-1. St. Thomas has won three of the past four meetings.
Tune into WCCO Radio 830 AM at about 1 p.m. Saturday as Dave Lee will have the play-by-play and Eric Nelson will provide color commentary.