COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – What was anticipated to be a close football game slowly faded into a blowout. For the first time this season, though, it wasn’t the Tommies on the winning side.
No. 9 St. John’s (5-0 MIAC, 6-0 overall) ran away with a 40-20 victory over St. Thomas (3-1 MIAC, 5-1 overall), handing the Tommies their first conference loss since Oct. 25, 2014.
“I thought nothing was perfect,” St. Thomas coach Glenn Caruso said. “I thought our (players) did a really good job of staying in the game … I felt like all the way into the fourth quarter, we were fighting back from the tremendously deep hole that we put ourselves in.”
Halfback Josh Parks struck first with a 94-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. The 7-0 advantage was the largest lead the Tommies held throughout the game. Parks carried the St. Thomas with 256 yards on 22 attempts, scoring three touchdowns in the process. He was the only Tommie player to find the end zone throughout the game.
In the fourth quarter, the Tommies faced a 33-20 deficit but were pressing inside the St. John’s redzone. Parks took a handoff, and St. Thomas’ last hopes, to the strong side. Instead of punching it in and trimming the deficit to one possession, he fumbled. Johnnie defensive lineman Max Jackson returned it for a 99-yard touchdown, sealing the Tommies’ fate.
“Obviously we played a very good St. John’s team,” Parks said. “But there was too many mistakes, especially made by me. If you do good things and you follow that by doing bad things, it doesn’t really matter what you did before.”
Despite passing for 339 yards on 53 attempts, quarterback Jacques Perra threw five interceptions and was sacked three times for a loss of 20 yards. Perra never managed to have a touchdown connection.
“It was tough,” Perra said. “There were a couple that were out of my control and a couple bad decisions, bad (throws). It happens.”
Even though it recorded two interceptions and two fumbles, the Tommie defense allowed Johnnie quarterback Jackson Erdmann 470 yards through the air on 53 attempts for three touchdowns. The defense allowed the most points it has since the 2015 Stagg Bowl, when Mount Union scored 49 points.
“That’s a really good football team,” Caruso said. “Everybody wants to keep bringing it back to the rivalry, which is great, but I keep going back to it’s two really really good football teams that you prepare for, not just a rivalry.”
Besides feeding off of the energy from the home crowd, the Johnnies had a mission to get the win in tribute to the winningest coach in all of college football, John Gagliardi. The former Johnnie coach died last Saturday. He was 91 years old.
“Over 60 years here coach spent giving his life and families time and his wife’s time to this school,” Caruso said. “I’m sure there were many people here to honor him… regardless of who won, it was a great honor of a man who put a lot into Division III football.”
Following the loss, the Tommies will look to bounce back at home Saturday against Carleton.
“Right now, we have to find out whether or not we can take a tough situation and learn from it,” Caruso said. “That’s what being mentally tough is.”
Matthew Curry can be reached at curr1523@stthomas.edu