Football explodes in 3rd Q, on to semis

By DOUG HENNES

Like all football coaches, Glenn Caruso loves it when his offense scores a lot of points, his defense shuts down the opponent, and his special teams step up with key plays.

All three elements usually don't come into sync in the same game. But they did on Saturday in a big way, and they added up to a resounding victory for St. Thomas as it cruised past Wabash 38-7 in a NCAA Division III quarterfinal game in O'Shaughnessy Stadium.

The win sent the No. 3 Tommies (13-0) to the semifinals for the third time in five years. They will play Linfield, a 38-35 comeback winner over Mary Hardin-Baylor, on Dec. 12, and again hope to be the host team based on their higher seed in the West Region. The NCAA will announce the location on Sunday.

"When we perform to our abilities, we're pretty dynamic," said Caruso said of his offense, defense and special teams. The win over seventh-ranked Wabash (12-1) "wasn't pretty," he added, "but all three phases of the flowed sequentially off each other."

Consider the St. Thomas offense. Wabash came into the game ranked No. 5 in Division III for allowing only 9.8 points and 229 yards a game, but the Tommies ran up 38 points in the first three quarters and finished with 384 yards.

Consider the St. Thomas defense. Wabash averaged 41.6 points and 467 yards a game but was held to his lowest point total in 45 games, all over the last four seasons. Mason Zurek, the No. 2 rusher in the country with 1,939 yards coming into the game, was held to a season-low 72.

And consider the St. Thomas special teams. The Tommies scored or generated 31 points off their special teams, including a punt return, a blocked punt, the recovery of a fumbled point, an onside kick recovery, and a fake field goal.

"I know a lot of people say they're risky," Caruso said of calls such as onside kicks and fake field goals. "But good football is good football," and "we have supreme confidence we'll mitigate any failure and get us back on track."

Punt return gives Tommies early lead

St. Thomas turned the ball over to Wabash at its 5-yard line on a long interception by quarterback John Gould on the opening series, but held the Little Giants to a three-and-out possession. Junior wide receiver Nick Waldvogel caught the punt at the Wabash 48.

"The hole opened up on front of me and I just took it," said Waldvogel, who swung to the left side, stiff-armed a couple of defenders and raced into the end zone. "You're kind of hanging out there and have to trust your team for good blocks." He also finished with a game-high eight receptions.

The next Wabash punt pinned the Tommies at their 2, and they embarked on their longest drive of the season. Gould converted third-down plays at his 2 and his 30 with 24-yard and 11-yard passes to tight end Charlie Dowdle. Jack Kaiser ran for a first down on fourth and 1 at midfield before Gould capped off the 15-play drive with a 28-yard touchdown pass to Dowdle on fourth and 3.

The Little Giants continued to struggle in moving the ball, running only 10 plays in its next three possessions. Their coach, Erik Raeburn, credited St. Thomas cornerbacks Mozus Ikuenobe and Jordan Young for shutting down his ends and allowing the Tommies to stuff the run with nine players in the middle.

"We tried to get as many guys on the line of scrimmage as possible, suck the air out of their running game and sprint through blocks," defensive coordinator Wallie Kuchinski said. "When we got separation by three scores, they had to go to a passing game and we were ready."

Wabash finally got traction late in the first half, picking up two first downs and advancing to the St. Thomas 40 before a sack and two incompletions forced a punt.

The Tommies' special teams stepped up again. Junior Joe Reed blocked the punt and St. Thomas took over on its 45 with 25 seconds left. Gould completed passes of 16 yards to Waldvogel and 20 yards to Ryan Bradley to set up Paul Graupner's 24-yard field goal with no time left.

The late score was the "tipping point" of the game, Caruso said. "The way our offense went downfield and utilized every second of the clock was enormous."

Third-quarter blitz

Wabash tried to claw back into the game in taking the second-half kickoff, moving quickly downfield and reaching the end zone on a 14-yard bubble screen pass. But the play was called back on a holding call, and a field-goal attempt failed.

St. Thomas was stopped on its next drive, but Pete Fitzsimmons' punt was fumbled by Wabash and recovered by Trace Adams at the Wabash 18. Four plays later on 4th-and-10, the Tommies lined up for a field goal at the 18, with the snap going to Dowdle for a Graupner kick.

"I was on the field with the offense, so I wasn't sure what they were talking about on the sideline," Dowdle said. "We lined up and they (Wabash) gave us a look that we liked. Coach (Caruso) made the call. The guys did a great job of sealing off the right side, and I was wide open running it in."

Caruso wasn't done with the sleight-of-hand plays. Graupner tried an onside kick moments later and Chris Pierson recovered the ball on the Wabash 33. Six plays later, halfback Jordan Roberts scored from the 1 – his nation-leading 31st touchdown of the year – and the Tommies led 31-0.

The blitz wasn't over. Wabash punted after four plays and Alex Fenske, in for Gould, capped another six-play drive with a 23-yard touchdown pass to Jack Gilliland and a 38-0 lead with 10 seconds left in the third quarter. The Tommies had just scored 21 points in 16 plays and less than seven minutes on short fields – 18, 33 and 47 yards – to put the game away.

Wabash got on the board on early in the fourth quarter on a four-yard run by Zurek.

Linfield holds on

Linfield rallied from 21-0 first quarter and 28-14 halftime deficits to defeat Mary Hardin-Baylor in Oregon, winning the game on a 32-yard field goal with no time remaining.

St. Thomas is familiar with the Wildcats. The two teams have split home postseason games in the Caruso rea. Linfield defeated the Tommies 31-20 in 2009 in Oregon in the quarterfnals, and St. Thomas won 24-17 in 2011 in two overtimes in St. Paul in the second round.

The winner of St. Thomas-Linfield will face the winner of Mount Union and UW-Whitewater in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl on Dec. 18 in Salem, Va. Mount Union defeated Wesley 56-35 on Saturday, and defending Division III champion Whitewater edged UW-Oshkosh 31-29 after losing to Oshkosh 10-7 during the regular season.

Any way you look at it, this will be an all-purple semifinals. St. Thomas, Linfield, Mount Union and Whitewater all have purple as their dominant color.

Tommie Notes

• Waldvogel has 27 touchdowns in 34 games at St. Thomas, but this was his first return touchdown. His older brother Fritz scored 46 touchdowns, including 10 on kickoff or punt returns, in 50 games from 2008 to 2011.

• Roberts finished with his lowest rushing total – 61 yards – and has 1,701 yards on the season. He has the fifth-most yards on the ground in Division III this year and moved ahead of Colin Tobin's 1,666 yards in 2011 for the third-best rushing season in St. Thomas history. Ahead of him are Gary Trettel (1,861 in 1990) and Ben Wartman (1,827 in 2009).

• Safety Isaac Seering led St. Thomas tacklers with a season-high eight solo tackles, include one for a four-yard loss.

• Gould went over 5,000 yards from scrimmage for his career. He was 16 of 28 passing for 196 yards against Wabash.

• The Linfield game will be Caruso's 100th as St. Thomas coach. He is 86-13 (.869) overall, 51-4 at home and 14-5 in the playoffs, including 13-1 at home. His Tommies are 48-0 at home when scoring 20 or more points.

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Team Stats

John Gould

Alex Fenske

Nick Waldvogel

University of St. Thomas Athletics