Having already claimed a share of the MIAC championship with a 80-3 victory over Carleton last weekend, the No. 4-ranked St. Thomas football team seeks full control of the conference trophy with a victory over Gustavus this Saturday in St. Peter.

The Gusties (7-2 overall, 5-2 MIAC) sit third in the MIAC standings and bolstered their conference record with a nail-biting 41-34 home victory against Concordia-Moorhead last week in which Gustavus scored 15 points in the final 29 seconds of the contest. Quarterback Mitch Hendricks threw for 363 yards and four touchdowns, including the final two scores of the game.

Coach Glenn Caruso called the Gusties’ offense the “most explosive” in the regular season, and cornerback Jordan Young said Hendricks is also dangerous on the ground.

“Hendricks is definitely in the top tier of the conference,” Young said. “Hendricks is not just only a pocket-passer but is also able to move around and use his feet when needed.”

Gustavus’ prolific signal caller has tallied 2,876 yards and 32 touchdowns this season, which ties him for sixth and fourth in the nation, respectively. This year, hendricks has eclipsed 300 passing yards six times, including over 350 yards four times. Last season, he was named to the All-MIAC First Team and All-West Region team after amassing 3,403 yards and 35 touchdowns.

Hendricks’ top target is wide receiver Matt Boyce, who has chalked up 1,212 receiving yards and 15 touchdowns. Boyce is ranked second in the nation in receiving yards and is tied for fifth in touchdowns. Last week, he hauled in 153 receiving yards with one touchdown on eight receptions. A season ago, he recorded 1,196 yards and 17 touchdowns on the way to being added to the All-MIAC First Team and D3football.com All-America Third Team.

“Boyce is one of the best wide receivers in this conference and has been since he’s been at Gustavus,” Young said. “What we have to do as a secondary is just be physical with him and make sure we get good jams on him at the line of scrimmage, which will result in throwing off their timing between him and (Hendricks).”

The Tommies (9-0 overall, 7-0 MIAC) held Carleton to 65 yards passing last Saturday and haven’t conceded more than 200 passing yards since the Tommie-Johnnie matchup in Week 4. Gustavus averages just over 333 passing yards per game. Caruso said there must be equality throughout the defensive planning in order to be successful.

“You have to stay balanced on how you attack everything; attack routes, attack protections, attack matchups, it’s a very measured game plan,” Caruso said.

If the Tommies want to succeed Saturday, the defense won’t be the only aspect of the team that will need to stay balanced. St. Thomas is averaging over 548 yards per game, but the Tommies average just under 50 yards less running the ball than throwing it. This type of balance is crucial, and center Stefan Sauer said the variety in the Tommie offensive attack will depend on what cards the defense is showing.

“We go into every game with a specific game plan, but that is based off of a guess of what the other team is going to run,” Sauer said. “We could head into a game thinking we’re going to run the ball a lot, but once we start the game, if the defense gives a different look than we expected, we will make our adjustments and go from there.”

The second level of Gustavus’ defense is its strong aspect, given that the top four tacklers on the team are linebackers. Sophomore Kysten Zierke is the Gusties’ top tackler with 70 stops. Senior Kyle Krzmarzick is second in line with 58, and junior Tyler Jakes has 48. Sophomore Anders Raarup rounds out the top four with 45 tackles. Sauer said the offensive line’s fundamentals need to be sharp against the Gusties’ linebacking corps.

“We have to make sure we play with low pad level and be very technically sound when executing our blocks,” Sauer said. “We have to make sure we get our appropriate leverage as well as getting to our correct assignments as fast as we can.”

If the Tommies win on Saturday, it will be their first MIAC crown since the 2012 season, the same year they reached the Stagg Bowl before being upended by Mount Union (Ohio) 28-10. Caruso said playing for home-field advantage in the playoffs this weekend is “as enormous as it gets.”

“If we do our job this week, then we would have a home playoff game. And if that’s the case, then certainly that’s an enormous advantage for our team and our university in so many ways,” Caruso said. “In years where we have the best teams that have made the deepest runs, we’ve been very fortunate to procure that home field advantage.”

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