The No. 3 St. Thomas football team continued its impressive run to start the season Saturday at O’Shaughnessy Stadium, defeating Wisconsin Eau Claire 49-0 to improve its record to 3-0.
The Tommies (3-0 overall, 1-0 MIAC) easily dealt with the Blugolds (2-1 overall, 0-0 WIAC), their final non-conference opponent for the regular season.
“(I’m) happy with it overall,” Caruso said. “Any time you can get a shutout and maintain that when the twos and threes come in, it’s pretty good.”
Running backs Josh Parks and Tom Loeffler led the rushing in the game with a combined 159 yards and three touchdowns. Parks’ also added a 14-yard touchdown pass to quarterback Jacques Perra on a designed halfback pass late in the first quarter.
“That was coach’s play,” Parks said. “We didn’t know if we were going to be able to run it or not, but we got into a position that allowed us to run it and we executed on it.”
Perra completed 15 of 23 passes for 224 yards and a touchdown, which came on a 16-yard pass to running back Emitt Peisert late in the second quarter. Perra was pulled from the game going into the half for quarterback Ronnie Jones.
Jones went 3-of-8 passing and connected with tight end Grant Slavik for a 23-yard touchdown with two minutes left in the third quarter.
The Tommies defense continued with their efficient toughness by holding the offense to 131 total yards, and recording three interceptions in the game. Defensive back Sam Gerrety snagged two of those three picks, both of which came in the first half in the first half.
“It felt good,” Gerrety said. “I felt we had a good game as a defense.”
Following this game, the Tommies have seven games remaining on the schedule, all of which are in the MIAC. They head to Concordia-Moorhead Sept. 29 to face the Cobbers (2-0 MIAC, 3-1 overall) for their first road game of the season.
“I was really happy it worked out for us,” Caruso said. “When we moved this game from game one to game three, what we knew it would allow is for us to see a legitimate run team before we got to Concordia, and that’s exactly what we needed.”
Matthew Curry can be reached at curr1523@stthomas.edu