Four passing touchdowns for quarterback John Gould and a stout defense vaulted the No. 7-ranked St. Thomas football team to a 50-0 halftime lead over Hamline in the Tommies’ homecoming game Saturday afternoon at O’Shaughnessy Stadium.

It didn’t take long for St. Thomas (5-0 overall, 3-0 MIAC) to get on the board. On the second play of the game, Gould connected with deep threat wide receiver Jack Gilliland on a 52-yard touchdown. This was Gilliland’s first game of the year after suffering an injury during practice before the season started.

On the next two Tommie possessions, Gould chalked up two 20-yard touchdown passes to wide receivers Nick Waldvogel and Austin Harrington. Successful extra points by kicker Paul Graupner after each touchdown gave St. Thomas a 21-0 lead with 5:12 left in the first quarter.

St. Thomas’ prolific running game tallied its first touchdown with a 2-yard Jordan Roberts score at the 14:21 mark of the second quarter. Running back Jack Kaiser contributed by punching in the two-point conversion. On St. Thomas’ next drive, Roberts recorded another 2-yard touchdown to give the Tommies a 36-0 with 8:17 left in the second quarter.

Special teams even got their turn in the end zone when backup tight end Wolfgang Dvorak blocked Hamline’s punt around the 2-yard line. Linebacker Adam Brant recovered the ball in the end zone for another touchdown with 7:01 remaining in second quarter. St. Thomas made it 50-0 with a 9-yard touchdown pass from Gould to tight end Matt Christenson just before halftime.

Jesse Krull can be reached at krul7386@stthomas.edu.