In what could have become a glaring blemish on a mostly perfect 2007 Johnnie football season ended spectacularly with wide receiver Chace Pollock’s leaping 4th down catch and conversion inside the Carleton Knights 10 yard line. With St. John’s behind 7 to 3 and only 56 seconds left on the clock senior running back Mike Patnode continued the drive and salvaged the game with a 1 yard plunge for a touchdown and the subsequent 10–7 lead.
Pollock makes the crucial catch • Photo by Tim Ward
The game itself was delayed nearly 30 minutes as a monsoon like storm came barreling down through scattered showers delivering lightening and thunder powerful enough to knock out cell phone coverage in the area. MIAC rules dictate the postponement of game play for 30 minutes following any lightning strike.
For former Johnnie star quarterback Kurt Ramler and now head Carleton Football coach the game would be the second opportunity to face his former coach and mentor John Gagliardi. Ramler proved in last year’s 29-19 loss at St. John’s that he is intent on challenging the top tier in the MIAC and improved on that showing with a nail-biting loss today.
The first half of play was a grudge match which moved from goal line to goal line without either team pushing the ball far enough to register points. Befitting the day in which running back Mike Patnode would rush for 230 yards, his work-horse effort resulted in a 3rd quarter fumble as he reached the ball across the goal line only to see it squirt loose and continue the 0 – 0 tie. The rogue like Knights would maintain that score until late in the quarter.
As their scoring struggles continued the Johnnie offensive line made up of Jason Brodmerkel, Jason Primus, Andrew Salvato, Dan Gamache and Ben Dimond repeatedly created enough room for Patnode to gain yardage and dominate time of possession chewing up 36 minutes compared to 24 minutes for the Knights.
Knights quarterback and Watkins, MN native Shane Henfling scored first with 3:16 left in the 3rd quarter on a 1 yard rush to make the score 7-0. That score would hold until 8:17 of the 4th quarter when Johnnie place kicker Russell Gliadon connected on a 24 yard field goal attempt to make the score 7-3.
In the end the Johnnie offense would wait until its final two possessions of the day and less than 9 minutes of play to score and finish the game with the 10-7 win. All totaled Mike Patnode eclipsed the all-time carry record by rushing 44 times and tied Mike Zumwinkel’s 3rd place single game rushing total of 230 yards set in 1985.
Photo by Vic Murphy
In what was a turnover and scoring struggle in the box score was in actuality another significant stride forward for the Johnnie offensive line who produced the best rushing effort since Chris Moore’s 278 yards in 1999 vs. Macalester. For this group of experienced offensive linemen the power running game line coach Jim Mader dreams of is upon us.
