University of St. Thomas Athletics
Saint John's
Football falls 21-0 at St. John's to end season
11/13/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
St. John's scored on three of its four first-half possessions and blanked St. Thomas 21-0 in MIAC football play Saturday in Collegeville.
The loss ends the Tommie season with a 7-2 record -- a four-win turnaround from 2003. UST shared second in the MIAC with the Johnnies at 6-2. UST closed 4-1 on the road in 2004.
St. John's, which posted its third shutout of the season, had eight sacks for 52 yards in losses. That helped hold the Tommies to 214 total yards. They held UST to 1-for-13 in third-down conversions.
The Tommies used a diving catch by P.J. Theisen to get first-and-goal in the final minute at the SJU 2-yard line. But the Tommies were stopped on a run, were sacked twice, then had an incompletion on 4th-and-goal from the 10.
The Johnnies had over 250 yards in the first half capped by a nine-play, 80-yard drive in the final 3:00 for a 21-0 halftime lead. SJU held the ball for 20:34 in the 30-minute first half and 35:44 on the game.
The Tommies allowed just one offensive or special teams gain of more than 22 yards on the day. Their defense held St. John's to 59 second-half yards and no pass completions on five attempts, and stopped SJU without points on drives that started at the UST 25 and 18 yard lines. Jeremy Krentz had a jump-ball interception in the end zone to thwart a second-half Johnnie drive.
The Tommies couldn't establish a running game in the first half and looked to the pass in the second half when they were down 21-0. Walter Dosh rushed 11 times for 25 yards and Peter Ridley ran just six times for 12 yards.
Sophomore QB Ryan Jansen completed 15-of-27 for 213 yards despite constant pressure. Theisen had five catches for 96 yards, all in the second half.
Defensively, junior LB Andrew Ubbelohde had 13 tackles; junior Ben Kessler had a sack, three tackles for losses; freshman Matt Jones had seven tackles in his first career start; Krentz had two breakups with his interception; and senior Matt Meunier and sophomore Mike Hara had sacks.
St. John's (7-3) has won seven in a row and 11 of the last 12 games in the series. The Johnnies have won eight in a row vs. UST in Collegeville.
The Tommies lost the coin toss to start the game and lost nine of 10 coin toss to start games or overtimes this season.
