The No. 4-ranked St. Thomas football team will aim for its first national championship in program history in the 43rd annual Stagg Bowl Friday night. The obstacle standing in the way of this rare accomplishment is No. 1-ranked Mount Union, which has been showcased in 10 straight national championship games, winning four of those contests.
The Purple Raiders were last crowned national champions in 2012 after defeating the Tommies, who were making their inaugural appearance in the Stagg Bowl. Mount Union routed St. Thomas 28-10 and held the Tommies to just 35 yards in the second half and 194 total yards. That loss taught coach Glenn Caruso and his team lessons they will use this year.
“We got back from that game, and certainly you never like to lose, but what a blessing it was for us for all the things that we learned,” Caruso said. “We’ve been preparing for the last three years for this opportunity, and it’s here.”
Caruso is going to have to take the lessons he learned three years ago along with the preparation from this week to exploit the high-powered Purple Raiders. Vince Kehres’ team features the nation’s top defense, a unit that allows just under 190 yards per game, and the third-best offense that rolls up over 550 yards per game.
“We have to get better at trying to take away the things that are the most hurtful, and they don’t have a lot of weaknesses,” Caruso said. “We know this is a different animal than all of the others that we’ve seen; we’ve been well prepared by both our league and our playoff run.”
St. Thomas’ (14-0 overall) offense, which averages 52.5 points per game, faces a defense that has been holding opponents to just 7.5 points per game. The Purple Raiders (14-0 overall) have shut out six teams this season and have been conceding just 188.3 total yards and 44.5 rushing yards per game. Only two running attacks have surpassed 100 rushing yards in a game this season against Mount Union defense, and the squad has limited seven teams to 25 yards or less on the ground.
Wisconsin-Whitewater was one of the two teams that busted through the Purple Raiders’ defense for more than 100 rushing yards, chalking up 106 yards on 36 attempts during last weekend’s NCAA semifinal.
Running back Jordan Roberts is coming off his best performance as a Tommie with 256 yards and three touchdowns on 33 carries in a 38-17 victory over Linfield. The junior has been held to under 100 rushing yards just four times this year.
“They’re really fast and athletic,” quarterback John Gould said. “They’ve got some big guys, some experienced guys that have played in this game before.”
Anchoring the front line for the Purple Raiders is defensive tackle Tom Lally. The senior leads the team with 18 sacks and is second in total tackles with 74. Lally has started in 44 consecutive games and played in every game his freshman year, including a three-tackle performance in the national championship game against St. Thomas.
During his career at Mount Union, Lally has been honored as an All-American, All-North Region and All-Conference player three times apiece. He is also the 2015 North Region Defensive Player of the Year.
Joining Lally in the trenches are seniors Mike Furda and Durum Alarms, who are second and fourth on the team in sacks, respectively. Furda was named to the Ohio Athletic Conference First Team and was part of the second team last season. Nose tackle Mike Vidal is third in sacks with 5.5.
Senior linebackers Jonathan Gonell and Hank Spencer, who are third and fourth in total tackles, respectively, steady a good linebacking core. Gonell was part of the Second Team All-Region and First Team All-Conference this year. Team captain Spencer was honored to the First Team All-Region and First All-Conference this past season and co-led the team with 10 tackles in Mount Union’s 36-6 victory over Wisconsin-Whitewater in the NCAA semifinal.
Safety Alex Kocheff patrols the secondary and leads the Purple Raiders in tackles with 81. The captain led the team in tackles his sophomore year and has garnered numerous accolades during his career. He has fellow safety Will Hiteshue and cornerback Tre Jones joining him in the secondary. Even in the face of Mount union’s vaunted defense, wide receiver Nick Waldvogel has full confidence in St. Thomas’ offense.
“A lot of teams feel like they have to stretch, but I believe in this team,” Waldvogel said. “Just how talented we are and being able to go out and do our jobs, we don’t feel that extra pressure.”
While Waldvogel believes in the Tommie offense, the team’s defense may be a greater determining factor in the outcome of Friday’s game. Kehres describes St. Thomas’ defense as “quick,” but he and his players are still optimistic.
“They (St. Thomas’ defense) create a lot of pressure on the opposing offense because of their quickness and their movement,” Kehres said. “They have some very good attacking corners that seem to have islands out there; they’re doing a great job in man coverage.”
Quarterback Taurice Scott leads the charge for Mount Union’s offense. The senior has thrown for 3,139 yards and is second in rushing with 800 yards. Scott is eighth in the nation in passing yards and tied for second in passing scores with 41. A game-changing athlete, Scott was catching passes instead of tossing them at this point last season. He reeled in 1,112 yards with 12 touchdowns and was named All-OAC Second Team.
This season’s leading receiver is junior Tim Kennedy, who has 978 yards and five touchdowns. Just two yards behind him is Roman Namdar. The senior has 19 touchdowns to go with his nearly 1,000 receiving yards. Namdar’s 19 scores put him in a three-way tie for first in nation.
Besides Scott, the backfield features running back Logan Nemeth, who has rolled up 1,737 rushing yards and 27 touchdowns this season. Only Roberts (32) has scored more rushing touchdowns in the nation this year than Nemeth. Middle linebacker Tim McClanahan said everyone on the Tommie defense must know their role if they want to have success against the multi-faceted Purple Raiders.
“Having everyone locked in on what their responsibility is, making sure they hit the right gap and mostly just playing hard and playing fast,” McClanahan said. “Then when it comes down to it, you’ve got to be able to finish it with strong tackles.”
If St. Thomas is victorious, it would deny Mount Union its 12th national championship in 19 Stagg Bowl appearances. Caruso said winning the Stagg Bowl, however, doesn’t define the Tommies’ program.
“We don’t draw our identity by what the scoreboard says; we have higher standards than that,” Caruso said. “Make no mistake, our goal every year is to win a national championship. More importantly, believe it or not, we need to play as well as we possibly can, and that’s what it would mean to us.”
Jesse Krull can be reached at krul7386@stthomas.edu.