The St. Thomas football team wrapped up its spring practice schedule with the annual spring game Saturday at O’Shaughnessy Stadium. The game served as a glimpse into the future and showed coach Glenn Caruso what his team needs to work on as it heads into its second Division I season.
The game pitted the Tommie offense against the defense and used an alternative scoring system (See Bottom) where both the offense and the defense could score depending on their performance on each drive. The offense won 59-40 but Caruso said, despite it being an intrasquad scrimmage, “it’s still a workday.”
“I’m the head coach, so anytime I’m happy with the offense, I’m going to be sad about the defense and vice versa,” Caruso said. “One of the things we learned was we’re typically a dominating defense, and today we were not.”
Last season, Caruso’s squad finished 7-3 overall and 6-2 in its first season in the Pioneer League, earning them a tie for third place with Morehead State in the conference. The team’s defense was a major contributor to its success, keeping the team in many games with pick sixes, timely interceptions while only allowing 15.6 points on average per game.
The defense topped the conference charts in pass defense efficiency in 2021, and it was on display Saturday. Sophomore linebacker and Pioneer League “Freshman Defensive Player of the Year” Luke Herzog, junior defensive back Joshua Slaughter and senior defensive back Kam In each had a pick six in the game.
“What it comes down to on a defensive basis is pattern mastery, running the football, then taking advantage of turnovers,” Herzog said.
Despite a few hiccups from the quarterbacks, Caruso said he thought the offense looked “really, really fluid” and that the No. 1 and No. 2 quarterbacks “looked very good.”
Senior quarterback Cade Sexauer, who split much of last season with senior quarterback Tommy Dolan, will return as the first-string quarterback for the fall 2022 season.
“I think it went well for the offense,” Sexauer said. “We still have a lot to grow on this summer, but it feels really good.”
In 2021, Sexauer finished ninth out of 10 QBs in the conference in passing TDs (3), pass completions (60), pass attempts (118), passing yards (761) and passing average per game (91.13 yards).
“The way he’s operating the offense is what has always allowed him to stay in the mix at quarterback,” Caruso said. “He’s pretty hot right now, and it’s fun to see.”
On Saturday, Sexauer found sophomore wide receiver Andrew McElroy twice for touchdowns.
Sophomore running back Hope Adebayo scored the game’s first points with a short run in the first quarter. Adebayo scored another touchdown in the second off a one-yard run.
Adebayo dominated the Pioneer League last season, earning Pioneer League “Freshman Offensive Player of the Year” while finishing top 10 in most rushing statistics, third in points/game (9), ninth in offensive TDs (12), fourth in rushing (80.38 avg/game, 643 yards), second in yards/rush and third in rushing TDs (12).
The Tommies begin next season’s schedule on Sept. 1 at Southern Utah followed by the team’s first home game on Sept. 10 against Michigan Tech.
“We can’t take anyone by surprise this year,“ Herzog said.
Twenty-five of the 29 incoming signees for the 2022 season attended Saturday’s game, giving them a look into what their futures hold as St. Thomas student-athletes.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Caruso said, “but we have guys who are willing to do that work. That’s all we ask for.”
Cam Kauffman can be reached at kauf8536@stthomas.edu.
Sam Larson can be reached at lars4378@stthomas.edu.