Loop back nearly 12 months and a “Ground Hog” like day reappears on the Collegeville horizon and it’s a bout of Gagliardi “déjà vu” all over again. Heck, when you’ve been the Football Sage at SJU for 55 seasons there’s a good chance things are bound to get a little quirky.
In 2006 the Johnnie season was played out in near identical fashion to the season ending thump that was handed to St. John’s on Saturday by Bethel University in Arden Hills. The Johnnie football fortunes in 2006 began with a potential near miss of the playoffs but were miraculously revived with 3 rounds of wild trips to Pella, Spokane and Whitewater.
In 2007 with the conference championship now in possession of the Bethel Royals, St. John’s was assured of a playoff spot but most assuredly a repeat trip to Pella, Iowa to play Central College.
Then began the most glorious day of the Minnesota fall with near 67 degree temperatures and was infused with even more glory when SJU was awarded it’s first home playoff game in nearly two years, avoiding a repeat first round drive south on I35! For those of us committed to extending the SJU season, another day in football paradise awaits us next Saturday vs. the University of Redlands Bulldogs.
This year’s drive through the DIII playoffs will define itself beginning with what happens on the field next Saturday. In 2006 it was a four hour drive down I35 and a very early 5am departure from the Twin Cities. As the first Johnnies in Pella that morning we were also the first fans of any team to arrive save for the GrillMeister Mike Fahey who found “free” lodging with an accommodating fan the night before!
The Johnnies scored early in that first round match and had plenty of reliable offensive performers throughout the playoffs in seniors Kyle Gearman and Mike Lofboom. The gift for beating Central was another 5:00am departure the next weekend from the HHH terminal to Spokane, WA for a date with the Whitworth Pirates.
Another victory notched, this time at the Pine Bowl, four hours at the Spokane Applebee’s, several delays later and the Johnnie fan plane from Spokane arrived back in Minneapolis early that morning and you guessed it, back to our beds in the western burbs at 5:00am.
Round three as fate would have it was a second consecutive trip to the University of Whitewater and to get there for the noon start required another 5:00am departure from Eden Prairie. The very evident mantra at that point became; “We either leave at 5:00am or get home at 5:00am, it’s just how we roll!”
Anticipating yet another Johnnie playoff run next weekend we can only hope that Saturday’s loss to the Royals was an early wake up call for the entire SJU squad. A wake up call that will eventually lead to a 2007 playoff that will write its own story.
