The St. Thomas football team defeated the Marist College Red Foxes 49-14 on a chilly Saturday afternoon at O’Shaughnessy Stadium.

St. Thomas (6-3, 5-1 Pioneer Football League) steamrolled Marist College (4-4, 4-2 Pioneer Football League) to pick up their 30th consecutive home victory, and their 5th conference win of the season, improving to a 6-3 overall record this season.

“The offense has the defense’s back.” Head Coach Glenn Caruso said. “It was great to see us be able to grow a bit on some of the positivity that we had last week.”

The game began with a punt from each team at the end of their first possession. St. Thomas’ punt from first-year punter Elliot Huether flew 36 yards, the same could not be said about the punt from Marist.

Sophomore defensive back Mitchell Schares blocked Marist’s first-year punter Joe Neubecker’s punt, putting the Tommies in a great field position for their second drive.

On the Tommie’s second possession, junior wide receiver Andrew McElroy threw an interception in the red zone after trying to make something out of nothing on a flea flicker.

Four plays into the next Marist possession, St. Thomas responded with an interception of its own, with fifth-year student defensive back Johnson Fallah coming down with the ball. Sophomore quarterback Amari Powell promptly found sophomore wide receiver Colin Chase for a 41-yard touchdown, putting the Tommies on the board for the first time.

On the next drive, junior running back Shawn Shipman had a 53-yard run to put the Tommies in the red zone, before junior running back Hope Adebayo finished it off with a one-yard touchdown to put the Tommies up 14-0.

Marist responded with yet another three and out, giving the Tommies a phenomenal field position. Adebayo took this opportunity to run for a 43-yard touchdown on the second play of the St. Thomas drive after he nearly bobbled the toss from Powell.

The second quarter began with a unique offensive formation with the Tommies lining up standing in a diamond. The Tommies then burst out of the unusual formation onto the line of scrimmage, and Gabe Abel ran for 40 yards on the play, setting himself up for a 5-yard touchdown run on the next play.

Marist, now down 28-0, flashed offensive success on their next drive, making it all the way to the St. Thomas 7-yard line. Rather than settling for a field goal, Marist opted to go for it on 4th down and ended up turning the ball over on downs after failing to convert a touchdown.

Powell then threw an interception to Marist junior safety Kyle Coffindaffer two plays later, handing the ball right back to Marist with a great position on the field. Marist finally found the endzone with one minute left in the first half after an 11-yard quarterback run from Marist junior quarterback Brock Bagozzi.

The Tommies drove to the endzone once more before halftime, with a spectacular catch by McElroy for a nine-yard touchdown. The Tommies entered the locker room for halftime with a commanding 35-7 lead.

“Our big thing is, whether we’re winning or losing at the half, like coach said, we didn’t come here to play 30 minutes of football, we came to play 60, so that’s what we’re going to do,” senior defensive back Grif Wurtz said.

The Tommies’ defense proved powerful all day, giving the team a chance to begin their offensive drives from Marist’s own 38, 40, 49, and 45-yard line.

Fifth-year defensive linemen C.J. Warren and Joey Fitzgerald combined for a monstrous 13-yard sack on Bagozzi to start the 2nd half, then junior linebacker Jonathan Bunce and senior defensive back Grif Wurtz followed that up with a 3-yard tackle for loss on Marist junior running back Tristan Shannon on 4th down to end the Marist Drive.

Shipman ran in a 2-yard touchdown in the third quarter to give the Tommies a 42-7 lead after a 6-minute St. Thomas drive.

With eleven minutes to go in the game, Shannon punched in a 2-yard touchdown to bring it within 28 points for Marist.

With 5:25 left to go in the 4th quarter, senior defensive back Matthew Guggemos tipped a Bagozzi pass to himself for an interception on the St. Thomas goal line and ran it back for a 70-yard return. Abel would cash this in for a touchdown run three plays later, his second touchdown of the game.
St. Thomas sent out their second stringers to run out the clock and secure the 49-14 victory.

The Tommies outrushed the Red Foxes by two hundred yards, with much of their total scoring coming from splash plays.

St. Thomas still holds the longest home winning streak in all of Division I football, dating back to the last time the Tommies lost a game at O’Shaughnessy Stadium on December 3, 2016.

St. Thomas will next play on the road against San Diego (2-6, 2-3 PFL) at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 11. The Tommies will play their next and final home game against Valparaiso (1-7, 0-5 PFL) at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 18, in St. Paul.

Karl Warner can be reached at warn5356@stthomas.edu.