Senior quarterback Cade Sexauer threw three touchdowns and racked up 185 yards passing as the St. Thomas football team crushed the Lincoln (California) Oaklanders 43-6 Saturday at O’Shaughnessy Stadium.
This is the first time the NCAA Division II Oaklanders (0-4), who are in their second season as a football program, have taken on the Tommies (2-1, 0-0 Pioneer). The win extended the Tommies’ regular season home win streak to 33 games.
Despite being without standout sophomore running back Hope Adebayo for the second straight game, the Tommies’ offense was still rolling to start, this time being led by receivers rather than running backs. Each of Sexauer’s TDs were thrown to different players, highlighting a possibly dangerous wide receiver and tight end corps for the Tommies as the season continues.
“I think today I just did a good job of just getting them (the receivers) in the plays when they were open,” Sexauer said. “A bunch of guys were winning on their routes, and I just did a good job of getting them the ball when I should have gotten them the ball.”
This is the third straight game the Tommies have scored on their opening drive, as Sexauer completed a 16-yard pass to junior wide receiver Jacob Wildermuth less than three minutes in. Senior running back Josh Komis, who coach Glenn Caruso credits as one of the Tommies’ most underrated players, capped the play off with a two-point conversion.
Sexauer followed up his first touchdown of the game with an even longer TD toss to senior tight end James Klecker for a 19-yard score. The scores were Wildermuth’s and Klecker’s first touchdowns at the Division I level, and it was Klecker’s second-ever game played for the Tommies.
After starting off hot and jumping out to a 15-0 lead, the Tommies’ offense hit a wall until over halfway through the third quarter.
“We’ve been great from the jump,” Sexauer said. “I think where we need to grow now is just drives two, three, four, five,” Sexauer said.
But the Tommies’ defense held tough, giving up no touchdowns and only two 28-yard field goals as it held the Oaklanders to just 92 yards rushing.
“Overall, very excited with how our defense was able to play, specifically on short fields,” Caruso said.
The Tommies’ defense, which topped the Pioneer League in a multitude of defensive categories last season, was another major factor in the game as it held the Oaklanders to just 1-of-14 on third-down efforts and 1-of-3 on fourth-down efforts. One of the Tommies’ best defensive plays came on a fourth-quarter goal line stand on third-and-goal as time expired to keep the Oaklanders out of the end zone.
Although many Tommie faithful thought the game would be a blowout win from the start, the Tommies only led by nine midway through the third quarter due to a scoreless and sloppy second quarter from both teams. However, finally, the Tommies opened up a scoring barrage as they went off for 28 unanswered points to finish the game.
“Eventually if you do your job well enough (and) long enough, things open up and that’s sort of what you saw out there today, maybe five minutes or eight minutes into the third quarter,” Caruso said.
Sophomore linebacker Luke Herzog started off the scoring for the Tommies in the second half when he took down an Oaklander in the end zone for a safety.
“We knew that they were dangerous if we took them lightly,” Herzog said. “That being said, we knew if we took care of the work, the result would be good.”
Two plays later, sophomore running back Shawn Shipman scored on a short rush after a long kick return by sophomore receiver Andrew McElroy and a false start by Lincoln gave the Tommies the ball at the 3-yard line. Shipman ran for a team second-best 73 yards following first-year running back Gabe Abel’s 104-yard performance.
Check out Shipman’s touchdown run below.
Highlighting the third-quarter scoring onslaught was St. Thomas first-year linebacker Ryan Sever’s blocked punt, which ended in a 30-yard scoop-and-score touchdown by graduate student linebacker Ty Barron. This is Sever’s second blocked punt returned for a score this season.
Sexauer completed nearly 70% of his passes in the game and picked up 21 yards rushing. To top off his three-touchdown performance, Sexauer threw a 23-yard TD to first-year wide receiver Bryce Boyd for Boyd’s first career TD.
Despite his standout performance at quarterback, Sexauer still saw things his team could work on after the rough second quarter.
“I think we just needed to clean up some little things,” Sexauer said. “We just kind of lost focus on those little things, and that kind of led us to stall and turn the ball over.”
Caruso echoed Sexauer’s sentiment, as he was “not happy about the fumbles on offense.” The Oaklanders recovered two Tommie fumbles in the game, one of which resulted in an eventual field goal.
The Tommies take on Marist Saturday, Oct. 1 at 11 a.m. in Poughkeepsie, New York, for the Tommies’ first conference game of the season. This will be the first time in program history that the St. Thomas football team will play in New York.
“We’re just really excited to start conference play,” Herzog said. “I think it’s a really fun thing, you know, seeing the scores of different teams and competing.”
Cam Kauffman can be reached at kauf8536@stthomas.edu.