St. Thomas (6-0, 4-0 in the MIAC) defeated Augsburg 17-0 last weekend thanks to a solid defensive performance, and the victory gave the team the lead in the conference standings. Hamline (0-5, 0-3 in the MIAC) lost 37-0 to Gustavus last weekend after a disastrous second quarter in which the Gusties scored 23 unanswered points.

In their meeting last fall, the Tommies defeated the Pipers 61-17 on Hamline’s home turf.

This year, the Pipers’ first-year head coach John Pate has a wide range of offenses and defenses.

“Their defense has shown every possible defense that is out there so that makes it more difficult for our offense to prepare,” coach Glenn Caruso said. “They are all over the board when it comes to the types of schemes.”

But Hamline’s offense is not completely unfamiliar to St. Thomas.

“It’s a wing-based option attack. The only other team we’ve seen run anything like that is Concordia-Moorhead,” Caruso said. “The uncertainty is part of the anxiety because we don’t know what we’re going to get, and that’s keeping us on edge this week.”

Senior wide receiver Fritz Waldvogel, who is currently tied for the most touchdown receptions in school history, said his team will have to roll with whatever the opposing offense or defense throws at them.

“I’m sure Hamline will throw things at us that we haven’t seen before, so we have to make sure to adjust to whatever they give us,” he said.

Slanted statistics

When looking strictly at team statistics, it’s clear that St. Thomas is a powerhouse in comparison to Hamline. Hamline’s leading receiver has seven total catches this season. Waldvogel had seven catches last week alone.

Senior running back Colin Tobin has rushed for 601 yards in six games this season, and the Tommies as a team have 1,258 total rushing yards. As a team, the Pipers have just 507 yards on the ground.

Hamline’s starting quarterback, senior Connor Sathre, has thrown for 352 yards this year. The Tommies’ starting quarterback, senior Dakota Tracy, has 1,234 passing yards on the season.

Growing from last game

Hamline has been held scoreless in four of its five games. St. Thomas had its first shutout of the season last week against Augsburg.

Senior nose guard Danny Kane believes that while shutting out a team is impressive getting the win comes first.

“The most important thing is to get the win first and foremost,” he said. “But it is always nice to post a shut out in a competitive conference like the MIAC.”

The Tommies had an uncharacteristic first quarter against Augsburg; the team was held scoreless. Waldvogel does not expect a start like that Saturday versus Hamline.

“We have to focus on ourselves,” he said. “We need to have a good week of practice and come out with energy.”

Kane said the Tommie defense holds the same mentality.

“We’ll get better at the things we struggled with against Augsburg. It all starts with practice,” he said.

Purple pride at home

The Tommies should have no problem getting hyped up for the game. It’s the team’s homecoming game, and players expect the student section to be screaming and jumping with purple pride.

“It’s always exciting to play in front of a great home crowd with so much team spirit,” Kane said.

Waldvogel said the team feeds off the positive energy from the Tommie fan section.

“Hopefully we’ll get a good crowd and feel some energy off them,” he said. “Having all the fans in the end zone during the Tommie-Johnnie game was unreal.”

A final homecoming hurrah

For seniors like Kane and Waldvogel, this weekend’s homecoming game will be their last.

“This game is very meaningful; we’ve come a long way together since freshman year,” Kane said.

After Saturday’s game, the Tommies only have one more regular season home game at O’Shaughnessy Stadium. Depending on how the rest of the season goes, St. Thomas could host postseason playoff games on its home turf.

This marks the beginning of the end for Caruso’s first recruiting class that arrived in 2008.

“The senior class is near and dear to my heart,” Caruso said. “They’re the ones who decided to come to St. Thomas and help build something when I had very little to show for it.”

Caruso said faith and hard work are what helped transform the football program from a 2-8 record in 2007 to being a nationally ranked team.

The seniors are proud of their team, but still have high hopes for the season.

“It’s been a blast,” Waldvogel said. “It’s great to see how this team has grown since the beginning of the season. All the units: offense, defense, and special teams have really come together in the past couple weeks, and you can see the positive results with our 6-0 start.”

“Our team gets better every week,” Kane said. “There are still things we have to work on, but there’s a lot of promise in the group of guys we have this season.”

Hayley Schnell can be reached at schn3912@stthomas.edu.