Running back Jordan Roberts chalked up 256 yards and scored three rushing touchdowns to push the No. 4-ranked St. Thomas football team into the national championship game with a huge 38-17 victory over Linfield (Oregon) in the NCAA semifinals Saturday afternoon at O’Shaughnessy Stadium.
The win sends St. Thomas to the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl in Salem, Virginia on Friday, Dec. 18 for a rematch with Mount Union. The Purple Raiders, who ended the Tommies’ 2012 season with a 28-10 win in the title game, beat Wisconsin-Whitewater 36-6 in Saturday’s other NCAA semifinal. Coach Glenn Caruso said it doesn’t matter who St. Thomas plays; he just wants the chance to continue to play.
“All we look for is opportunities. We work as hard as we can, together as we can, as long as we can to just have an opportunity and have a benefit of the doubt,” Caruso said. “And we have that opportunity right now.”
Roberts was a crucial component in giving the Tommies (14-0 overall) an opportunity to battle for their first national championship in program history. He reached his season-high rushing total on 33 carries and surpassed former St. Thomas back Gary Trettel to set the single-season rushing record. This performance is coming on the heels of a game against Wabash where he was held to 61 yards and one touchdown on 16 carries.
He recorded St. Thomas’ first touchdown, a 4-yard dash, with 12:49 left in the first quarter. Roberts’ second score came off a 13-yard run in the middle of the third quarter, and his 22-yard scamper, the Tommies’ final touchdown, capped off his impressive performance.
“We try to wear people down and keeping chipping away and chipping away, and eventually the runs start to crack, and we really believe in that in an offense,” Roberts said. “(The offensive line) gets stronger as the game goes on, and I just do my best to see the holes and hit them as hard as I can.”
The hard-nosed running back models his game after legendary Chicago Bears running back Walter Payton. Roberts follows Payton’s motto of “never die easy” and emulates it by “never going down easy.”
“We give him an inch, he takes a mile,” offensive tackle David Simmet said. “It’s so much fun blocking for Jordan; the whole (offensive line) feels that way.”
Simmet and the rest of the offensive line ground down the Linfield defense and paved the way for 444 yards of total offense, including 389 rushing yards. Running back Jack Kaiser rushed for two touchdowns and 40 yards on 11 carries. Wide receiver Nick Waldvogel rolled up 66 yards on six attempts with a good chunk of yardage coming on a 53-yard reverse on the Tommies’ first possession.
The passing game was quiet but steady against the Wildcats (12-1). Quarterback John Gould threw for 55 yards and one interception, completing five of his 11 passes. His lone interception came at the hands of linebacker Skylor Elgarico on the first play of the second quarter. The turnover resulted in Linfield’s first points, a 25-yard field goal from kicker Michael Metter.
Before the successful Metter field goal, mishaps on back-to-back possessions stopped the Wildcats from getting any momentum. On Linfield’s second possession of the game, quarterback Tom Knecht was stripped of the ball, and linebacker Steve Harrell recovered the loose ball on St. Thomas’ 27-yard line. That setback led to Kaiser’s first touchdown.
On the next possession, Knecht threw it over the middle, where outside linebacker Jesse Addo snatched the pass at the 50-yard line and returned it to Linfield’s 37-yard line. Knecht finished the first half with 117 passing yards, two interceptions and zero scores. Coach Joseph Smith called the first half “horrendous” for Linfield.
“Certainly we’ve got to feel like we weren’t ready to play; I take all the blame for that,” Smith said. “We did not come out ready to meet the physical prowess of what St. Thomas did.”
Knecht was replaced by quarterback Sam Riddle, Linfield’s opening-day starter, at the beginning of the second half. Knecht stepped in for Riddle in the Wildcats’ second round game against Cortland State when Riddle went down with an ankle injury. Riddle was the West Region Offensive Player of the Year this year.
Riddle was able to have a bit more success against the Tommies’ stubborn defense, completing 15 of 24 passes for 173 yards, two touchdowns with one interception. Riddle finally recorded the Wildcats’ first touchdown, a 27-yard pass to wide receiver Erick Douglas III, with 13:23 left in the fourth quarter. On the Wildcats’ next offensive possession, Riddle connected with running back Spencer Payne for a 12-yard score.
St. Thomas won the turnover battle and sacked Linfield three times for 12 yards, but Addo called the Wildcats’ offensive line “really athletic.” Defensive end Anthony King-Foreman said the defense had its chances to wrestle the quarterback down.
“They are a great pass-protecting team, and it took a lot to get to the quarterback as many times as we did,” King-Foreman said.
This year is the second time in a row that Linfield has been one game short of reaching the Stagg Bowl. The Wildcats lost 20-14 against eventual 2014 national champion Wisconsin-Whitewater. Riddle said he was disappointed on how the season ended.
“We’re sitting here and we’re done,” Riddle said. “We’re not going to Salem.”
While the Wildcats are heading home, the Tommies will head back to Salem with a chance to right the wrongs of three years ago. Simmet was a key freshman in the Tommies’ run to the national championship game in 2012, and he called it one of his favorite college memories.
“Having an opportunity to head back there with this team, which is different than last team, but still a family to me, it means the world,” Simmet said.
Updated NCAA Division III playoff bracket.
St. Thomas, Linfield full news conferences.
Jesse Krull can be reached at krul7386@stthomas.edu.