University of St. Thomas Athletics
Saint John's
Football falls 27-7 to No. 3 Johnnies
10/28/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
No. 3-ranked St. John's scored touchdowns on a kickoff return and on an interception return and allowed just 133 net yards in Saturday's 27-7 MIAC football win over St. Thomas at O'Shaughnessy Stadium.
The Johnnies (9-0 overall, 7-0 MIAC) ran their MIAC winning streak to 16 and secured at least a share of their 25th conference championship in 54 seasons under Coach John Gagliardi. They can win the title outright with a win Nov. 11 at home vs. Bethel.
St. John's had nine sacks for 58 yards in losses to officially drop the Tommies to one net rushing yard on 25 carries. The Johnnie defense also limited the Toms to 1-of-14 in third-down conversions.
The Tommies (5-3, 4-2) scored midway through the fourth quarter on an 18-yard pass from David Sauer to freshman Sam Moen to cut the lead to 20-7.
St. Thomas got the ball back on a fumbled shovel pass, caused and recovered by UST's Mike Rouse at the Johnnie 28-yard-line. But the Tommies fumbled the ball back three plays later on a screen pass.
The Johnnies scored their final points on 4th-and-5 from the UST 10 with 1:29 remaining on Mike Lofboom's second TD catch of the game. Lofboom had 35 rushing yards and 53 receiving yards with TD catches of 15 and 10 yards.
SJU senior Brandon Royce-Diop returned the opening kickoff 90 yards for a score, but the PAT kick missed. It was the Johnnies' first kickoff or punt return for a TD since 2004.
The Johnnies had four trips inside the UST 20-yard-line in the first half but scored just once as they lost two fumbles. It was still just 6-0 until the Johnnies scored a 15-yard TD pass from Kofoed to Lofboom with 49 seconds to play in the half to take a 13-0 lead at intermission.
On the third play of the second half, John Cloeter's 33-yard interception return gave St. John's a 20-0 lead.
St. John's gained 368 yards of offense. Kofoed completed 24-of-39 for 267 yards and no pickoffs. Kyle Gearman caught six passes for 74 yards.
For the Johnnie defense, Nick Gunderson had a fumble recovery and three sacks among his four tackles for loss; Josh Rose had a sack and seven solo tackles; Kevin McNamara had 2.5 sacks.
Tommie freshman Ross Petterson had a sack, nine tackles, a forced fumble in the red zone and a recovered fumble at the UST 4-yard line to lead the defense. Senior Mike Hara added a sack and six solo tackles; and senior Roger Casey had eight tackles and a fumble recovery.
Sauer completed 17-of-32 passes for 132 yards and one interception. Tony Margarit had three catches for 39 yards.
Next Saturday, the Tommies play at Hamline while the Johnnies are idle.
