Tommies Blog: Defense Dominates In 51-7 Win Over UW-La Crosse
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A football coach will never say they are completely satisfied over the course of a 60-minute game, even in a lopsided victory. There is always an adjustment to be made somewhere or something that needs fixing.
But St. Thomas football coach Glenn Caruso has to be at least somewhat satisfied now that his No. 12-ranked Tommies are off to a 2-0 start. St. Thomas opened its home schedule Saturday with a convincing 51-7 victory over UW-La Crosse. The Tommies led 23-0 at the half and scored the game's first 30 points.
In two games, the first-team St. Thomas defense has yet to allow a meaningful touchdown. The Tommies have outscored two non-conference opponents by a combined 113-14. In Saturday's win over the La Crosse, the Tommies allowed just 116 total yards and collected nine sacks. Jesse Addo, Steve Harrell and Anthony King-Foreman had two sacks each. The St. Thomas defense has 12 sacks in two games.
On offense, the Tommies were pretty much clicking on all cylinders Saturday. They collected 654 yards of total offense, 483 through the air, and got three rushing touchdowns from Jordan Roberts in the win. John Gould and Alex Fenske split time in the lopsided win. Gould finished 18-of-31 for 277 yards and a touchdown to Ryan Bradley. Fenske was 10-of-12 passing for 206 yards and a touchdown to Wolfgang Dvorak.
Roberts led the St. Thomas rushing attack with 16 carries for 92 yards. The Tommies ran for 171 yards on the day. Jack Kaiser added 46 yards rushing on 12 carries with a touchdown.
If there was a blemish on the day, it was that the Tommies had three turnovers. But they had little difficulty moving the ball with 29 first downs, compared to nine by La Crosse.
St. Thomas now gets a week off before it opens the MIAC schedule with one of the biggest games every year in small college football. The Tommies travel to Collegeville and take on rival St. John's Sept. 26 at Clemens Stadium. They'll be looking to end a two-year losing streak. St. John's is 2-0 after a Week 1 win over the University of Dubuque and a victory last week over Buena Vista.
After two weeks, five MIAC teams are 2-0. In addition to St. Thomas and St. John's, there is Gustavus, Hamline and Concordia. The featured MIAC game this week is Concordia (Moorhead) hosting St. John's, which could go a long way in determining the league champion at the end of the year. It was the Johnnies' only regular season loss last year.
Bethel hosted top-10 team Wartburg Saturday and lost 24-14. That's the same Wartburg team that knocked St. Thomas out of the NCAA Division III playoffs last year.
The Tommies have had plenty of balance on offense to start the year, and they'll need that to beat the Johnnies on the road. They also have a tough schedule at the end of October, hosting Bethel and traveling to Moorhead to face Concordia in consecutive weeks.
Through two weeks, St. Thomas is putting up some gaudy numbers on offense. The Tommies are fourth in the country in passing, averaging about 416 yards per game. Their scoring offense is seventh nationally at more than 56 points per game and their scoring defense is tied for 12th at just seven points per game. They're averaging 562.5 yards per game, good for 13th in the country and their rushing defense of just 55.5 yards per game ranks 15th overall.
While it's a little unrealistic to expect numbers like that the rest of the year, it's a good measure for where St. Thomas is at when the team is playing its best football. We'll have a much better sense of this program's potential this season after the Sept. 26 trip to Collegeville. It will be an electric atmosphere as always at St. John's, regardless of how the Johnnies do at Concordia this week.
