MOORHEAD, Minn. – Paced by 254 total yards from running back Jordan Roberts, the No. 6-ranked St. Thomas football team overcame an early deficit in a 38-14 win over 14th-ranked Concordia-Moorhead Saturday at Jake Christiansen Stadium.
Roberts bested his previous mark for total yards this season – the junior had 240 against St. John’s on Sept. 26 – and led a Tommie offense that racked up 552 yards. It wasn’t easy in the early going for St. Thomas; the Tommies (8-0 overall, 6-0 MIAC) were held scoreless in the first quarter for the first time this season and trailed for just the second time all year.
“We’ve seen some adversity the last couple weeks, and I think it’s really good for us. I think it’s going to prepare us for when we see better teams down the road,” Roberts said. “We know how we react and handle situations, and we just have to keep our composure when things go wrong and keep playing football the way we know we can.”
Concordia (7-2 overall, 5-2 MIAC) received the opening kickoff and wasted no time getting on the board. Running back Jason Montonye took a handoff on the second play of the game and raced 57 yards down the sideline before being forced out of bounds at the Tommie 16-yard line. Five plays later, wide receiver Brandon Zylstra took a direct snap in the backfield and made his way into the end zone for a 9-yard touchdown that put the Cobbers up 7-0 with 11:19 left in the first quarter.
St. Thomas fell behind on an opening-drive touchdown in last week’s 45-14 win over Bethel before roaring back to take the game. Coach Glenn Caruso said adversity is a positive for his team, if it utilizes it well.
“We have fallen behind 7-0 both on opening drives, and our offense has stormed back, and our defense has settled down,” Caruso said. “If you look at the long run, an early score is not the end of the world if you handle it well.”
The Tommies didn’t let their deficit carry over for long, evening the score at 7-7 on a 1-yard touchdown run from Roberts with 13:41 left in the second quarter. Roberts broke the 1,000-yard barrier for the season on the carry, the first Tommie to reach this milestone since Brenton Braddock in 2012. Caruso said he has been impressed with Roberts’ ability to perform at his best this season when playing against top teams like St. John’s and Concordia-Moorhead.
“The two biggest totals of well over 200 yards were against some of the best defenses in the country,” Caruso said. “When you have a great player, and that guy can play big in big games, you’re sitting pretty good.”
Roberts put the Tommies in the lead later in the second quarter with his first receiving touchdown of the year. Facing third down at the St. Thomas 32, Roberts turned a short screen pass from quarterback John Gould into a 68-yard touchdown. Tight end Charlie Dowdle took a direct snap on the extra point attempt and maneuvered his way across the goal line to push the Tommie lead to 15-7. Roberts said his teammates made this score possible.
“It was kind of a long-developing play because I had to wait for the defensive lineman to get upfield … then I just kind of snuck in behind them,” Roberts said. “(Gould) threw a perfect ball so I could run in stride. It was just one-on-one, and I had to make one guy miss, and the rest was tight ends and receivers making blocks downfield.”
St. Thomas followed the scoring drive with back-to-back possessions ending with interceptions before wide receiver Nick Waldvogel found the end zone on a 25-yard touchdown run. Waldvogel ran for 57 yards in his return to the backfield – he ran for 496 and 10 touchdowns last season – as a replacement for running back Jack Kaiser. Kicker Paul Graupner missed the extra point to keep the score at 21-7.
The Tommies pushed their lead back to three touchdowns before halftime on Gould’s 17-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Jack Gilliland.
St. Thomas received the second-half kickoff, but a fumble by Gould, his third turnover of the game, stalled the drive and gave Concordia possession with a chance to wrestle momentum away.
Like it did all afternoon, the Tommies’ ferocious pass rush quelled the threat. St. Thomas held Concordia to 179 total yards and sacked Cobber quarterbacks Alex Grove and Michael Herzog eight times throughout the contest. St. Thomas now boasts six players with at least three sacks this season, including defensive lineman Anthony King-Foreman and linebacker Jesse Addo, who lead the MIAC. Linebacker Tim McClanahan said the Tommie defense is successful because of the relentless pressure coming from all areas.
“Guys were running hard trying to make plays,” McClanahan said. “Sometimes the plays aren’t for you, and you have to take it in the mouth so someone else can come free.”
Concordia proved resilient, cutting the score to 28-14 on a 35-yard touchdown toss from Herzog to wide receiver Jon Baune at the close of the third quarter. That two-score deficit would be as close as the Cobbers would get for the rest of the afternoon.
Graupner added a 38-yard field goal with 9:38 left in the game before Gould and Gilliland connected on a 52-yard touchdown that capped the Tommie scoring.
St. Thomas returns home to O’Shaughnessy Stadium next weekend to take on Carleton (1-7 overall, 0-6 MIAC). With a win, St. Thomas would move to 9-0 for the third time in five seasons and enter the regular-season finale against high-flying Gustavus (6-2 overall, 4-2 MIAC) undefeated.
Tom Pitzen can be reached at pitz2014@stthomas.edu.