University of St. Thomas Athletics
3-0
Saint John's
2-1
Run D, pickoffs fuel Football's 43-21 win at SJU
9/15/2012 12:00:00 AM | Football
The Tommie defense held St. John's to 24 net rushing yards and made four second-half interceptions to help secure Saturday's 43-21 MIAC football road win over their archrival.
A Colllegeville crowd of more than 14,000 watched No. 6-ranked St. Thomas (3-0 overall, 1-0) extend its regular-season victory streak to 27 and its MIAC win streak to 20.
The Johnnies (2-1, 0-1) had a six-game win streak halted and had 60-year head coach John Gagliardi's 600th game at SJU end in defeat.
The Tommies outscored St. John's 36-7 in the game's final 44:00 to build their first three-game win streak in the series since 1954-57.
UST scored a TD pass on its first play from scrimmage and later returned two interceptions inside the SJU four-yard line to set up touchdowns. One of the those was an 81-yarder returned to the Johnnies' one-yard line by Tyler Erstad in the fourth quarter to swing the momentum back to the Tommies.
The 43 points are the third most for UST in 81 games of the Tommie-Johnnie series. St. Thomas scored 63 last season at home and 56 on the road in a 1986 victory.
The Tommies overcame three interceptions and 12 penalties. They gained 405 yards on offense. Ryan Toney had three short touchdown runs and Logan Marks had a career-high six catches.
SJU starting QB Connor Bruns came into the game with an 71-percent completion rate on the season. He threw for 316 yards but completed only 17-of-36. St. John's had gone 10 quarters this season under Bruns without a turnover before he was picked four times in the game's final 24:00.
St. Thomas' defense has 26 interceptions by 13 different players over the last two seasons.
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http://www.gojohnnies.com/custompages/Statistics/Football/2012/091512.htm
Team Stats
UST 7, SJU 0
UST - Dan Noehring 33 yd pass from Matt O'Connell (Griffin Snyder kick) 1 plays, 33 yards, TOP 0:06
UST 7, SJU 7
SJU - Max Forster 31 yd pass from Connor Bruns (Jimmie Mattson kick) 5 plays, 80 yards, TOP 1:59
UST 7, SJU 14
SJU - Connor Bruns 1 yd run (Jimmie Mattson kick), 12 plays, 82 yards, TOP 5:09
UST 15, SJU 14
UST - Ryan Toney 1 yd run (Dan Ferrazzo rush), 11 plays, 80 yards, TOP 5:09
UST 22, SJU 14
UST - Logan Marks 7 yd pass from Matt O'Connell (Griffin Snyder kick) 10 plays, 72 yards, TOP 2:00
UST 29, SJU 14
UST - Ryan Toney 5 yd run (Griffin Snyder kick), 2 plays, 2 yards, TOP 0:43
UST 36, SJU 14
UST - Ryan Toney 7 yd run (Griffin Snyder kick), 8 plays, 52 yards, TOP 2:34
UST 36, SJU 21
SJU - Taylor Freetly 17 yd pass from Connor Bruns (Jimmie Mattson kick) 1 plays, 17 yards, TOP 0:05
UST 43, SJU 21
UST - W. Schneider 1 yd run (Griffin Snyder kick), 1 plays, 1 yards, TOP 0:03
