After losing to rival St. John’s last weekend, the No. 7 St. Thomas football team (4-1 MIAC, 6-1 overall) bounced back with a massive 68-0 victory over the Carleton Knights (2-4 MIAC, 3-5 overall) on Saturday at O’Shaughnessy Stadium.
“I felt we cleaned up some things that needed to be cleaned up,” coach Glenn Caruso said. “Obvious things like ball security on offense and deep balls on defense, got a chance to play a lot of guys and was able to control the game with the run game, that always makes me feel good.”
Halfback Josh Parks led the dominating rushing game, scoring three of the Tommies’ nine rushing touchdowns and totaling 198 yards on 13 attempts. Parks scored the second touchdown of the game by sprinting past the Knights’ defense for 46 yards in the first quarter. He did the same with a 61-yard run to end the first half.
“It was good,” Parks said. “After last week we had to come out here and prove that we’re still the team that we think that we are.”
Parks also added that this was a must-win game for the Tommies.
“We needed to (win). It wasn’t ‘can we or should we,’ it was we needed to,” Parks said.
Quarterback Jacques Perra went 10 for 18 for 100 yards. Despite not having a passing touchdown, Perra managed to find the end zone with a 3-yard QB sneak in the second quarter.
Perra was pulled at halftime for third-year Ronnie Jones, who recorded the only passing touchdown of the game on a 25-yard connection with wide receiver Joe Hird in the third quarter. Jones scored his first rushing touchdown with a 24-yard run in the third.
The defense rebounded after giving up 40 points to St. John’s last weekend, limiting the Knights’ offense to 110 total yards. The Tommies never allowed the Knights to convert on third down and forced three turnovers in the game. Defensive back Luke Glenna recorded his fourth interception of the season with a third-quarter pick.
“We played really well,” Glenna said. “It was a great bounce-back game for us, just to get back on track.”
After a mistake-filled game against the Johnnies, Caruso and the rest of the Tommies made sure that this week was different.
“Just a good opportunity to correct things that were wrong,” Caruso said, “I told the players before the game, when you repeat a mistake, it is no longer a mistake; it’s a decision. A conscious decision that you’ve made. And we’re all going to make mistakes — but we pride ourselves on not making the same mistake twice.”
The Tommies will play their last home game of the regular season next weekend against St. Olaf (3-2 MIAC, 5-2 overall).
Matthew Curry can be reached at curr1523@stthomas.edu.