University of St. Thomas Athletics
St. Olaf
Hilliard's 3 TD catches lead 28-16 football victory
10/13/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sat. Oct. 13, 2001
MIAC Football-- St. Thomas 28, St. Olaf 16
Andrew Hilliard's 3 TD catches lead Tommies to Homecoming win
Andrew Hilliard (JR-Woodbury) caught 10 passes for 194 yards, including touchdowns of 35, 25 and 64 yards, to lead host St. Thomas (4-2 overall, 4-1 MIAC) to a 28-16 MIAC football victory Saturday over St. Olaf (3-3, 2-3) in the Tommies' Homecoming game at O'Shaughnessy Stadium.
The Tommies' win avenged a 2000 loss to the Oles and keeps them in second place in the MIAC with St. John's at 4-1, one game behind 5-0 Bethel.
It was the second game in a row that Hilliard broke open a close game with three TD receptions. He now has nine TD catches in five games this season while missing one game with an injury.
The Toms led 7-3 at halftime and 14-3 after three periods before each team combined for four TDs during a six-minute stretch of the fourth quarter.
St. Olaf drove 65 yards on two plays and pulled within 21-16 on Manuel Spriegl's 12-yard TD run with 7:08 to play. That was set up by Steve Ryan's 53-yard reception from QB Joe Hammond on first down from the Oles 35.
Four plays later on 3rd-and-5, Hilliard made a finger-tip catch on a fly pattern and turned it into a back-breaking 64-yard TD that put the Tommies ahead by 12 points with 5:39 to go.
The Tommies had no turnovers and rolled up 459 yards of offense. QB Nick Ambrasas (JR-St. Paul/Arlington) completed 21-of-31 for a career-high 338 passing yards with no turnovers, and he also tallied a 23-yard TD run early in the fourth quarter. UST tailback Jake Barkley (JR-Plymouth/Robbinsdale Armstrong), the No. 2 rusher in NCAA Division III, returned after a one-game injury absence and rushed 19 times for 79 yards.
Meanwhile the Tommie defense helped cause four St. Olaf turnovers, including interceptions by Matt Meunier (FR-Osseo), Bob Hannah (SR-Cottage Grove/Park) and John Kaiser (SO-Mora). Andy Kaiser (SR-Mora) hit the quarterback to force
one interception, and in the final seconds Connell Nolan (SR-Burnsville) caused a fumble near the UST goal line after a 22-yard Ole gain, and the Tommies' John Kaiser recovered to deny the Oles' a final score. Rick Joslin (JR-Cambridge/Cambridge-Isanti) had 10 tackles, including two for losses. Spriegl scored the two Ole touchdowns on runs of 2 and 12 yards, and finished with 93 yards on 22 carries and 29 reception yards on four catches. Ryan, the 2000 MIAC Playerof the Year, caught three passes for 90 yards while fellow senior Brian Sprout had six catches for 64 yards. Hammond was 16-of-29 for 231 passing yards with the three interceptions
as the Oles gained 381 yards in defeat. Matt Lafferty was in on 15 tackles and James Struble had 1.5 sacks for the St. Olaf defense. see box score here
