WAVERLY, Iowa – Defensive back Sean Hamlin’s onside kick recovery with under a minute to play gave the St. Thomas football team the ball at the Wartburg 42-yard line trailing by 6 points, but Knights defensive back Logan Pitz intercepted quarterback John Gould’s pass with seconds left in the game to seal a dramatic 37-31 win for Wartburg that ended St. Thomas’ season.

Both teams traded touchdowns for much of the second half, but the Tommies were never able to stop the Knights after scoring themselves, falling just short in the end. Coach Glenn Caruso said close games at the end of the regular season this year gave the team confidence in the fourth quarter Saturday.

“We felt like we had been in this game before … because of the history of the last month. We felt if we needed to extend the game and swap drives that we could be in good shape,” Caruso said. “In order to do that and finish on the winning end, you need to make a stop in there somewhere.”

On its opening drive, Wartburg faced a third-and-long when quarterback Logan Schrader found wide receiver Taylor Jacobsmeier along the sideline for the first down. Wartburg capitalized on the conversion and opened the scoring later in the drive with a short touchdown run by running back Brandon Domeyer with 9:10 left in the first quarter.

St. Thomas was marching down the field on the ensuing drive when a costly turnover ended its possession. Wartburg defensive back James Garlock intercepted Gould’s pass at the Knights’ 20-yard line, ending the Tommies’ drive.

Gould faced consistent pressure from Wartburg’s defensive line early in the game and was taken down three times Saturday. After some initial struggles, Gould said the team adjusted well.

“We had a little bit of protection issues, and some of that was me … feeling a little bit of pressure and not being confident back there,” Gould said. “But as the game wore on, we made those protection adjustments, and I tried to stay as confident in the pocket as I could.”

Wartburg took advantage of the interception and found the end zone again to cap off a 10-play, 64-yard drive. Schrader rolled out to his right and beat several St. Thomas defenders to the pylon for the score. Kicker Michael Bohlke missed the extra point, leaving the score at 13-0 in favor of the Knights.

The Tommies answered right back on the ensuing drive. Running back Nick Waldvogel leapt over the pile for a 1-yard touchdown that cut Wartburg’s lead to 13-7.

St. Thomas forced Wartburg to punt and got the ball right back, gaining momentum to start the second quarter. The Tommies vaulted into the lead and scored their second touchdown minutes later to make it 14-13, St. Thomas’ first lead of the game. Running back Brenton Braddock found the end zone from 11 yards out for his sixth rushing touchdown in the last two games.

In a common theme for Saturday’s matchup, Wartburg answered right back with a score of its own. Schrader directed the Knights’ offense down the field and completed several key passes before the team punched it in on the ground. Domeyer scored his second touchdown of the half, this one from 3 yards out, to make the score 20-14 Wartburg with just over five minutes left before halftime.

The Knights received the second-half kickoff and went on an 80-yard drive that shaved more than eight minutes off the clock. The drive stalled at the St. Thomas 8-yard line though, and Wartburg settled for a 25-yard field goal from Bohlke that pushed its lead to 23-14.

St. Thomas responded with a lengthy 15-play, 67-yard drive of its own that took more than six minutes off the clock. The Tommies were a perfect 3-for-3 on fourth down on the drive and capped it off with another connection between Gould and tight end Charlie Dowdle. Gould and Dowdle continued their successful seasons, connecting for a 15-yard touchdown that cut Wartburg’s lead to 23-21 near the end of the fourth quarter.

“Those are the plays that we usually run. Just having the confidence in the O-line to protect,” Gould said. “I knew Charlie was going to be open on those, so I know if I put them on him, he’s going to make the catch.”

After converting almost 70 percent during the regular season, St. Thomas converted all seven of its fourth down attempts in the game, including three on the drive that cut Wartburg’s lead to 23-21. Several key drives were kept alive by fourth down conversions, which Caruso said spoke to the nature of the game.

“If you look at it, the thing that kept us in this football game was our willingness to go for it on fourth down and our ability to convert on those fourth downs,” Caruso said. “We’ve never let up 37 points before, but in a game situation like that we gotta try and manufacture more drives on offense, and one of the ways we do that is to extend drives through fourth down usage.”

The Tommies attempted an onside kick, and it looked like they recovered, but the Knights came out of the pile with the ball, giving Wartburg possession at St. Thomas’ 46-yard line.

Wartburg took advantage of the short field and pushed its lead to 30-21 on a 1-yard Domeyer touchdown run. Domeyer gashed the Tommies for 138 yards and three touchdowns in the game, the fourth opponent to eclipse 100 yards on the ground against St. Thomas this season.

“(Domeyer) had a lot of big runs in the middle, and throughout the whole game we were just trying to find a way to adjust. We came up with a couple different schemes to adjust to all those big runs but … he had a great game; hats off to him,” defensive back Jesse Addo said.

Dowdle and Gould hooked up for a score for the second time on Saturday on St. Thomas’ next possession. Gould took the snap and bought time in the pocket before heaving the ball downfield for Dowdle. Dowdle fought through pass interference by the Knights’ defender to haul in the 48-yard ball for the touchdown that made the score 30-28 Wartburg with 9:24 left in the game.

“It was just a play that we were working on all year, and (Gould) put the ball for me to make a play, and you just gotta take advantage of the opportunity,” Dowdle said.

Dowdle continued this season’s success, hauling in a touchdown for the sixth straight game and topping 100 yards receiving for the fourth time this season.

The Knights pushed their lead back to 9 points on a spectacular touchdown of their own, courtesy of the feet and right arm of Schrader. Schrader took the snap in the red zone and scrambled outside the pocket before finding a leaping wide receiver, Will Ebert, in the left corner of the end zone for the score.

“We were always kind of behind the 8-ball because for a lot of those swaps, it was still a two-score difference,” Caruso said. “(When it’s) a 9-point game and you know you need two more drives, you really have to reach a little bit more on offense, but we were able to be productive when we did reach today. Unfortunately, (we) could not finish.”

St. Thomas kicker Paul Graupner split the uprights on a 28-yard field goal that cut Wartburg’s lead to 37-31 late in the game. St. Thomas recovered the ensuing onside kick before Pitz’s game-saving interception in the final minute of the game sealed the win for Wartburg.

The loss ends St. Thomas’ season in the first round of the NCAA Division-III playoffs for the first time in Caruso’s tenure at St. Thomas. Notable graduates from this year’s team include quarterback Matt O’Connell, defensive backs Kyle Coyne and Sean Hamlin, defensive linemen Sam Pokornowski and Josh Corbin, linebackers Rutger Heffelfinger and Cavan Metzler, offensive linemen Ulice Payne III and T.J. Woodrow, and tight end Cole Kelly.

Tom Pitzen can be reached at pitz2014@stthomas.edu.