A great season for graduating senior Kellen Blaser ends in disapointment. Photo courtesy of GoJohnnies.com
It took nearly 36 hours and lots of guts, perhaps the same guts Joe B. Quarterback lost early in the afternoon Saturday to even have the nerve to glance at the St. Cloud Times website and review of the Johnnies first round playoff game. As I gradually moved closer to my desk, instinctively my computer mouse finally found it’s way back home, home being the D3Football.com website and Post Patterns message board.
The process is always the same anytime the Johnnie Football team suffers an excruciatingly painful loss or equally maddening early exit from the Division III playoffs. If the agony from the Johnnie playoff loss to the Coe College Cohawks was devastating for committed fans of St. John’s University you can only imagine what it felt like for returning starter Joe B. Quarterback.
After sitting out nearly a full month with his right thumb in a cast, Joe Boyle was almost immediately greeted with a helmet to the gut and Johnnie fans wondering why he was sitting on the bench with his head between his legs and Johnnie staffers washing down the tartan track directly beneath the bench. With an icepack stacked high on the back of his neck it looked as though Johnnie playoff prospects would be left to a handful of backup quarterbacks hurriedly tossing passes back and fourth along the sideline.
Managing to return to the field shortly after, Joe lasted well into the final quarter before dropping back to pass on third down and seeing no one open took off running with his exceptionally quick feet only to be violently speared in the back by the knee of one of the Coe defenders. Sliding within inches of the first down, Boyle was now on his side with legs squirming and pain piercing his lower back and hip.
Staggering off with the help of SJU medical staff and a right leg stiffened and locked in place to guard from any additional agony, Joe B’s 2009 season was about to end. Not from the numerous injuries wracking his body or the confusion his brain must have been in from the multiple neurons each sending their own message of anguish, but from the fumble committed on the very next play by his freshman understudy.
Could fate be so crule?
Just as the Johnnies were driving deep into Coehawk territory late in the fourth quarter and trailing by one touchdown, linebacker Calvin Thomas picked up the fumbled 4th down snap from the substitute Johnnie QB and bolted 70 yards for another defensive touchdown. On this day it would take two crazy defensive touchdowns by the same player for nearly 170 yards and an underwhelming Johnnie performance to help register the Coe College win.
How do we fill the void and emptiness of an unfulfilled playoff season? Let’s begin by giving praise and thanks for Collegeville football Saturdays and the astounding performance throughout the 2009 season. Let’s give thanks too for The MIAC rule change allowing transfer students to gain an extra year of eligibilty that up until this point would have been forfeited. The change in policy will dramatically enhance the Johnnie football roster in 2010.
Change we can believe in will also be achieved by inserting freshman running back Harry Awe as the full-time slot receiver and kick returner. This year the Johnnies ran the ball in aggressive fashion and are plenty stacked with returning ball-carriers including “break-out” frosh Stephen Johnson. What the offense lacks is the game-breaking downfield passes that excited fans and devastated opponents thrown from the wings of this decade’s past quarterbacks Linnemann, Denne, Keating and Kofoed.
Running the ball on the end around with Harry Awe should be at the top of offensive play chart along with reincarnating the smallish style and explosiveness of late 90’s Johnnies superstar wide receiver Adam Herbst.
With one year left in his quarterback career Joe Boyle can guarantee the Johnnies another MIAC championship and pull them from their recent first round playoff dull-drums. He’ll need to retire his scrambling style and rely on an experienced offensive line and pocket passing to minimize the injuries he suffered during the 2009 season.
In the end we’ll all give thanks to Boyle, Awe and Johnson for leading us past the first round of the playoffs and onwards toward another Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl.
Thanks indeed.
* Stay tuned to JohnnieFootball.com throughout the off-season for postings from TC, TDT, JohnnieTats and our newest contributor, Pure Bred Johnnie – Matt Melsen. Happy Thanksgiving!
