Football defeats reigning back-to-back PFL Champion Davidson to remain perfect in conference play

St. Paul, Minn. – Entering the game, Davidson averaged 45.0 points per game and led the nation in rushing offense with 389.4 rushing yards per game. St. Thomas limited Davidson to 16 points and 288 rushing yards and only 93 passing yards in the Tommies 27-16 win.

With the win, St. Thomas extends its regular-season home winning streak to 33 games.

Davidson won the coin toss and elected to receive the first possession of the game looking to establish their run-game early. St. Thomas would have nothing to do with it, limiting the Wildcats to 30 yards on nine plays, which ended with a sack by senior LB Tommy Shelstad on fourth down.

For the fifth time in as many games this season, St. Thomas took their opening drive, marched down the field and scored a touchdown. The five-play 65-yard opening drive was capped off by a 23-yard touchdown strike from senior QB Cade Sexauer to sophomore WR Andrew McElroy opening a 7-0 lead for the Purple.

The Tommies scored twice in the second quarter with a touchdown strike from Sexauer to junior WR Jacob Wildermuth, and a second touchdown from Sexauer to McElroy to open a 21-0 lead with 2:49 to play in the opening half. Davidson scored its first points of the game by way of a 40-yard field goal making it a 21-3 St. Thomas lead heading into intermission.

In the first half, the St. Thomas defense limited a stout offensive rushing attack to only 80 rushing yards on 34 rushing attempts and in total, limited the Wildcats to 101 yards of offense in the opening half. The Tommies finished with 192 offensive yards in the first two quarters, including 115 passing yards. Sexauer completed 9-of-14 passing attempts with three touchdowns and no interceptions. McElroy posted 74 receiving yards in the first half.

The Wildcats started the second half with a 12-play 87-yard touchdown drive capped off by a 14-yard touchdown run to cut the St. Thomas lead to 21-10 with 8:01 remaining in the third quarter.

The Tommies answered with an 11-play 73-yard drive that chewed nearly six minutes off the clock opening a 17-point, 27-10 lead in the final minutes of the third quarter.

Davidson forced a St. Thomas punt with 5:31 to play in the game and added a touchdown with just over one minute to play, bringing the score to 27-16 in favor of the Purple. The Wildcats attempted the onside kick, but the Tommies recovered and finished the contest in the victory formation.

Senior QB Cade Sexauer finished the game completing 11-of-19 passing attempts for 136 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions. The senior passer also led the team with 45 net yards rushing. Five different Tommies totted the rock at least four times, including freshman RB Gabe Abel, who averaged 6.3 yards per rush and finished with 28 yards.

Senior DB Luke Glenna had a monster game – he finished with 22 total tackles, including 11 solo stops and one tackle for loss, pushing the Wildcats back five yards. Shelstad finished the contest with 9 tackles, 1.0 sack, and one forced fumble.

St. Thomas continues conference actions as it hosts Drake at O'Shaughnessy Stadium next Saturday for homecoming.

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Team Stats

Cade Sexauer

Players Mentioned

Luke Glenna

Andrew McElroy

Cade Sexauer

Tommy Shelstad