University of St. Thomas Athletics
St. Norbert
Football drops opener 21-19 at St. Norbert
9/6/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
Tommie senior RB Justin Kostner had three touchdown runs, but for the second year in a row, the St. Thomas football team opened its season with a close loss to St. Norbert.
The host Green Knights broke to a 14-0 lead and held off the Tommies 21-19 in non-conference play Saturday in DePere, Wis. Last year in St. Paul, St. Thomas fell 35-31 to St. Norbert in the 2002 opener en route to a 5-5 finish.
St. Norbert outgained the Tommies by a mere 308-302 yards of total offense. The Green Knights, 9-1 last season, had no turnovers while the Toms lost a fumble after a reception and had one pass picked off. Aljay Wren rushed 28 times for 107 yards and QB Ryan Hartman completed 15-of-21 for 128 yards for the winners.
Sophomore QB Justin Lockrem played well in his first Tommie start. He completed 16-of-27 passes for 186 yards and rushed four times for 29 yards. Kostner rushed 25 times for 59 yards with scoring runs of 1, 10 and 2 yards. UST had scoring drives of 73, 80 and 54 yards.
Kostner's 1-yard touchdown run with 38 seconds left in the first half cut the SNC lead to 14-6, but the PAT kick missed. Kostner scored again early in the fourth quarter to cut the deficit to 14-12, but a two-point pass fell incomplete.
The Greeen Knights took a 21-12 lead on a 29-yard scoring pass from Hartman to Seth Schussler with 6:50 left. The Toms pulled within 21-19 with 1:18 to go on Kostner's TD run and Brian McKenna's PAT kick. On that drive, the Tommies had three fourth-down conversions.
For the Tommie defense, Andrew Ubbelohde had 16 tackles, Ben Kessler had three tackles-for-loss among his nine tackles, and Steve Groth and Marshall Clamons were in on 10 tackles each.
The Tommies play their MIAC opener Sept. 13 at Bethel.
