University of St. Thomas Athletics
Gene's Blog: Tommies trade finesse for ferocity, top Bethel
11/9/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Snelling Avenue colleges Hamline and Macalester squared off in varsity football for the 110th time on Saturday in a series that began in the 1890s. The "Paint Bucket" Trophy was on the line, and it stayed in the Pipers' possession.
By comparison, the St. Thomas-Bethel football series is just 32 years old. It began in 1978, when the Royals made their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference football debut with a 36-12 home loss to the Tommies.
There's no Paint Bucket at stake, but UST coach Glenn Caruso just might create his own hardware.
How about the "Lunch Bucket?" That sums up the mentality of these two physical football programs that went cleat-to-cleat for 15 rounds on Saturday on the Bethel campus.
In the end, the Tommies' old-school defense and ball-control offense won out. They outslugged and outlasted the Royals, 19-10. For just the second time in 18 years, St. Thomas has started a season 8-1.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's no exaggeration to call this the most important victory for Tommie football in 19 seasons.
If No. 10-ranked St. Thomas follows this up with a home win next Saturday over Northwestern College, the program's first NCAA playoff trip since 1990 appears likely.
If that seems like a lifetime ago, consider that freshman WR Haakon Hansen was born Nov. 25, 1990 -- one day after the Tommies' last NCAA football playoff game, a 33-32 loss to Central (Iowa).
Much at stake
For all practical purposes, this was a November elimination game for both programs. The loser's postseason hopes ended, and the winner's stayed alive.
Bethel came into the day with a 17-3 home record and 32-11 overall mark over the last four seasons. The Tommies were 22-16 in the same span (11-8 on the road).
Last year's November meeting, played in freezing temps at O'Shaughnessy Stadium, produced many big gains on the turf and a Tommie 36-20 comeback victory.
The 2009 rematch, played in sunshine and temperatures in the mid-60s, was a grind-it-out game on natural grass. There were 128 plays run, and despite some gamebreakers on both squads, there were no returns, receptions or rushes of 25 or more yards.
Just two seasons removed from a Final Four trip, Bethel came in with a 6-2 record, and was two plays away from being 8-0. If not for a stunning 49-yard field goal by SJU's Russell Gliadon with three ticks left on the clock, BU's senior class would have gone 4-0 in their era against the Johnnies.
The St. Thomas defense has been quietly effective in 2009. Take out three touchdowns created by opponents' special teams, and the Toms came into Saturday having allowed 11 defensive TDs in regulation in eight games, including just two scored in four quarters by St. John's.
St. Thomas came up with three turnovers, and Bethel managed just 241 offensive yards, 10 first downs and one TD. That means in their last eight quarters, the Tommies have collected six interceptions and three fumble recoveries, while allowing just one touchdown.
BU junior running back Logan Flannery, who came into the day with 3,216 career rushing yards in 32 games, was limited to 60 yards on 16 rushes. That was his lowest total in his last 13 MIAC outings. Bethel is 19-4 on his career when Flannery rushes for 85 or more yards, and the Tommies made sure he didn't reach that bellwether total.
Kopp's a key
The day's MVP was a St. Thomas senior playing his last MIAC regular-season game. Kris Kopp (pictured below) recovered two fumbles and had an interception, and all three turnovers gave the Toms possession inside the Bethel 
40-yard-line. Kopp added four solo tackles including a tackle-for-loss on fourth-and-four at the Tommie 25-yard line that turned the ball over on downs.
Not bad for a guy who played in several games at quarterback as a sophomore in the Toms' 2-8 finish. Kopp might be the first player in conference history whose resume will include TD passes thrown and touchdown runs scored on offense, and an MIAC Defensive Player of the Week honor on defense.
"We are fortunate to have a lot of speed and quickness on defense, which allows us to have great pursuit to the football and to make a lot of plays." Kopp said. "I think our intangible strength as a defense, and the quality we take the most pride in, is our toughness. We really focus on playing with an attitude and effort that sets us apart."
After Bethel hit a 24-yard scoring pass in the final minute of the first half to climb within 13-10, you had to wonder if the momentum would shift. Three times in 2008 when UST had victory in sight, it watched one play change the tide. A potential 10-0 Tommie regular season resulted in a 7-3 finish.
Hence, a team theme for 2009 was born: "Leave No Doubt." The Tommies have been true to that challenge, especially with their second-half focus. UST outscored its eight conference opponents 157-42 in the third and fourth quarters.
The latest installment came Saturday as St. Thomas held the Royals to 72 yards and no points on five second-half possessions.
Ball control
Bethel held Ben Wartman out of the end zone, but the Tommie junior halfback still gained 133 yards on 32 carries and caught two passes for 21 yards. That helped UST roll up a 35-25 minute time-of-possession advantage.
In the process, Wartman surpassed 1,000 season rushing yards and 2,400 career yards. The Tommies are 14-1 the last two seasons when Wartman reaches 100 rushing yards, a credit to O-linemen Josh Ostrue, Jon Curtis, Chad Vandergriff, Curtis James, Ben Katzner and Justyn Helgeson.
Coach Steve Johnson's Royals successfully employed a "Where's Waldvo" game plan. They made it priority one to contain the Tommies' explosive Fritz Waldvogel, who had huge kickoff returns in each of his last three games. BU's strategy included three short kickoffs that resulted in an average starting position for the Tommies at the UST 40-yard line. Fritz caught six passes for 66 yards and also was a good decoy on UST's three red-zone touchdowns.
The Tommies' X factor on offense was sophomore QB Dakota Tracy (shown at right). A 5-foot-10 guy passing to 6-foot-4 
guys for points is common in basketball, but it's a bit unusual in college football. Yet three times in third-and-goal situations, Tracy calmly threw it up in a crowd, and receivers Jake Friederichs, Tony Margarit and Nick Gleisner hauled in touchdowns. Gleisner's lone catch of the day was his first collegiate TD in 17 receptions and gave UST a two-score lead late in the third quarter.
Star Tribune sports columnist Patrick Reusse passed up covering the Gophers' home game and Wild hockey to drive to Arden Hills for the battle. A native of the southwest Minnesota town of Fulda, Reusse knows most of state's geography, but even he was stumped by the location of Tracy's hometown.
"Where is Geneva, Minn.?" asked Reusse.
Another southern Minny native, Tommie athletic director Steve Fritz, joked: "It's not too far from Blooming Prairie."
Let's see -- Fritz (hometown Blooming Prairie), Reusse (Fulda) and Tracy (Geneva). All we need is WCCO's Mike Max (Gaylord) and we'll have the Interstate 90 region covered.
For the record, Tracy grew up 25 miles from the Iowa border in a town of 449. He had a senior class of roughly 75 at New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva High School. The school's more widely known as NRHEG -- which could be a nice alternative in the board game Scrabble if you're stuck with a lot of consonants.
The bigger story isn't where Tracy comes from, it's where he's going.
Next Saturday, he'll celebrate his 20th birthday and direct the Tommie offense in a quest for victory number nine. Nine football wins were last achieved by a St. Thomas football team in 1983.
No doubt
Saturday's game was still undecided into the fourth quarter. After the Toms missed on three chances to put together a knockout drive, Coach Caruso came to the bench to address his offense. An injury stopped the game, and a quiet settled over the stadium. The coach, who didn't realize that his pep talk was drifting into the Tommie bleachers, stared down his center, guards and tackles and essentially said this:
"Everything we are as a football program revolves around you guys and what you do. You need to do it better so we can get this victory."
Ostrue, an All-American center (shown at right), likes such challenges. "We have a
unique relationship with Coach Caruso," he said. "He played center in college, and he knows how offensive linemen pride themselves on how physical and nasty they play. Not nasty, as in cheap shots, but nasty as in ferocious. He definitely helped incorporate that into us as a unit. When we begin to lose that toughness, he will be the first person there to remind us who we are."
The offensive line took the field again and responded by clearing the way for two Wartman first-down runs. The Tommies ran out the last 3:39 on the clock, tucked away their lunch buckets, and savored another productive day on the job.
St. Thomas fans left happy, because Glenn's guys left no doubt.
