MOORHEAD, Minn. – What was supposed to be one of the toughest games of the season for the St. Thomas football team turned into something very few expected: a blowout.
The No. 3 Tommies (2-0 MIAC, 4-0 overall), despite going up against the second-best total defense in the MIAC, rolled over the Cobbers (2-1 MIAC, 3-2 overall) with relative ease, cruising to a 46-7 victory.
The win at Jake Christiansen Stadium was only the second time this season that an opposing team has scored a touchdown on the Tommies.
“(I felt) very good,” coach Glenn Caruso said. “(We played) as good as I can remember us playing in some time.”
What did go as planned was the role that the defense and running game played for St. Thomas. With a high of 43 degrees and a light rain coming down throughout the game, Caruso opted to let his star running back loose.
Josh Parks torched the Cobber’s defense with 101 yards on 14 attempts and three touchdowns. His longest of the day came on a 38-yard scamper in the second quarter.
“(I felt) pretty good,” Parks said. “There’s always stuff you can work on, but I think we came out here and made a statement for the rest of the season.”
This was the second week in a row that Parks scored multiple touchdowns in a game. The senior halfback is now tied for the MIAC rushing touchdown lead with seven.
As the game progressed, quarterback Jacques Perra looked more comfortable in the pocket and on the run. The second-year starter eclipsed 200 passing yards for the second week in a row, adding a passing touchdown on an 8-yard check-down to fullback Stephen Wagner in the first.
“It wasn’t an ideal condition day,” Caruso said. “We have to be able to handle the adversity, and I think our team did that.”
“I thought that we had great energy,” linebacker Adam Brant said. “Our defense is on a new level, it’s just awesome to play with these guys. We’ve had a great defense in the past, and we just want to keep that legacy going.”
Brant scored on a 40-yard fumble recovery in the first quarter, marking the third time the defense has scored this season and the first by a fumble recovery.
“I feel great with how we’re playing on a lot of different levels,” Caruso said. “We can’t count on it, but anytime a defense or special teams unit can score, that’s such an enormous predictor of success.”
The last time the Tommies played the Cobbers in Moorhead, they had to rely on the late-game heroics of Alex Fenske and Nick Waldvogel to pull out a 23-21 win with two seconds remaining. Caruso said it was the ugliest win he had led the team to in his time at St. Thomas.
“When we left here in 2016, it was probably as dejected I’ve ever felt (after a win),” he said. “We were able to avenge what I consider a horrendous football game.”
St. Thomas has rolled through the first four weeks of the season, scoring an average of just over 58 points a game and allowing only 3.5 points a game.
“It’s more about what I say every week: Can we grow and get better? We grew and we got better this week,” Caruso said.
St. Thomas plays its next game Saturday at home against Augsburg. The Auggies (0-3 MIAC, 2-3 overall) are on a three-game losing skid and have been outscored by an average of 46 points a game during that stretch.
Noah Brown can be reached at brow7736@stthomas.edu.
Matthew Curry can be reached at curr1523@stthomas.edu.