Fresh off a 62-24 shellacking of Hamline, the No. 22-ranked St. Thomas football team will look to extend its win streak to four games when it faces No. 11-ranked Bethel Saturday in Arden Hills.

The Royals are coming off an impressive 52-21 victory over the University of Chicago last week, and they look to push their winning streak to six games. Bethel is the defending MIAC champion and sits atop this year’s conference standings, but St. Thomas coach Glenn Caruso said the Tommies always look forward to the matchup.

“This is one that we’re just always very excited to play. If we could play them 10 times throughout the year, we would love it,” Caruso said. “Whether we play the game here, in Arden Hills or the middle of a cornfield in Iowa, it’s just a game that we love to play.”

The Tommies are 5-1 against Bethel during Caruso’s tenure and dropped last year’s game in Arden Hills 28-21. Center T.J. Woodrow said the team put last season’s loss behind them a while ago, but he added that everyone recognizes the significance of this Saturday’s game.

“Last year doesn’t really matter, it’s all about this year,” Woodrow said. “It’s a playoff game for us. We know that if we lose again, there’s a lot less chance we go to the playoffs.”

Defensive lineman Rois Coolidge also mentioned the game’s importance and said there is no danger of the Tommies losing focus.

“It’s win or go home pretty much, it’s a playoff game,” Coolidge said. “We treat it like a playoff game, from film to practice … even when we’re just walking around campus, we’re thinking about Bethel.”

The St. Thomas defense will have plenty to think about once the teams hit the gridiron Saturday. The Royals feature a bevy of talent on their offense but are led by a trio of running backs. Marshall Klitzke leads the team with 416 rushing yards, Brandon Marquardt is first on the team in carries with 75, while Bridgeport Tusler paces the team with six touchdowns on the ground. Caruso said the Royals’ running backs remind him of the Tommies’ triumvirate of Jack Kaiser, Brenton Braddock and Nick Waldvogel because of their versatility.

“They have several guys that are capable of running, and more so than that, they have guys that can run their entire offense,” Caruso said. “A lot of times when you have many guys carrying the ball, it’s a certain skill set that one guy does better than the other … but very similarly to our offense, all three are complete backs that can run.”

Adding to the considerable talent in the Royals’ backfield, quarterback Erik Peterson leads Bethel from under center. Peterson was the recipient of the Jim Christopherson award last season as the MIAC’s Most Valuable Player and remains one of the conference’s top offensive threats. Coolidge said the defense will need to put pressure on Peterson if the Tommies hope to keep the Royals in check.

“If we get people at his feet every play, I’m sure can rattle him and sack him,” Coolidge said. “We need to get in those throwing lanes, knock those passes down and get hits on the quarterback.”

After posting fewer than 180 passing yards in the first four weeks of the season, Peterson has topped 290 in the past two – including 320 in the win over Chicago. Caruso said even though the Royals’ quarterback has the ability to throw the ball downfield, the secret to the Bethel attack lies in the short passing game.

“Where they’ve done a better job than other teams is throwing it short to the backside of the backfield and letting those backs run with it,” Caruso said. “In order for you to throw a 20-yard pass, some teams have to throw the ball 20 yards, and (Bethel) can do that, but they can also dump it off in the flat off of a play-action and run it for 20 yards.”

Short passes are fixtures of Bethel’s game, but Caruso said the defense will also need to gameplan around wide receiver Bryce Marquardt.

“He’s built for speed, but he also is just a good overall receiver with ball skills,” Caruso said. “A lot of times, you have a fast guy, he doesn’t have great ball skills.”

Marquardt leads the Royals in nearly every receiving category this year and has scored touchdowns in all but one game thus far. He has 29 receptions, 444 yards and 8 touchdowns on the season and has hauled in four scores in the past two games.

Peterson’s top target isn’t his only one, though.

Tusler has 250 yards and six touchdowns on the ground this year, but he isn’t far behind Marquardt for the team lead in receptions with 24. Coolidge said Tusler is extremely dangerous running the ball, and he added that the defensive line will play a part in attempting to stymie him in the pass game.

“When (Tusler) comes out of the backfield, we’re allowed to get in his way, try and throw off his routes a little bit,” Coolidge said. “But mainly for that we got great outside linebackers, and they got so much speed that we trust them to take care of the back off the backfield.”

Saturday’s game marks the beginning of a four-game stretch for St. Thomas during which it will face the top three teams in the MIAC (Bethel, Concordia-Moorhead and Gustavus) to close the season. Wide receiver Pete Fitzsimmons said the Tommies’ current success and win streak are significant but said the last four games of the season will ultimately determine the team’s fate.

“Yeah, we won our last few games, but we haven’t been playing the best teams in the MIAC either,” Fitzsimmons said. “Coach always emphasizes it doesn’t matter how good you start off; it’s always about how good you finish.”

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