On a day that began like so many in my personal history of Johnnie football road play-off games I rose in the pre-dawn hours to walk outside to a cool and windy day. I proceed to Eden Prairie to meet my traveling party. We picked up the final member of our group at a Bloomington shopping center parking lot at 5:00AM and we headed south on I-35. Memories of previous Johnnie-Dutch match-ups in the play-offs in recent years had us looking for a well played, hard hitting, tightly contested game that quite possibly could be decided on the final play of the game.
We arrived in Pella at 9:00AM and made our way to the campus of Central College, in anticipation of meeting other Johnnie fans for the Stiftungfestivities, the unofficial tailgate party of St. John’s football.
As game time approached we made our way inside the stadium and claimed our seats near the 50-yard line. I really like to attend road games, because you not only get to see your regular group of friends and family that you normally attend home games with, but you also are seated among other Johnnies fans that you have never met before. Many times these new fans that you meet are family members of a player on the current team and you get their perspective of the events that transpire on the field. The family I sat near for the Central game was the family of Johnnie linebacker, Josh Rose. The family chatter was reminiscent of the days when I had nephews who wore the cardinal and blue.
The captains met at midfield for the coin toss and the Johnnies would be receiving the opening kick-off. The crowd yelled encouragement to the Johnnies bench. What transpired on the field over the next 57 minutes and 41 seconds of game time left the Johnnie Nation little to cheer about. There certainly were flashes of greatness by the offense as they were within the Dutch 25-yard line or closer seven times, yet were only able to score on a 20-yard TD pass from Alex Kofoed to Brian Weber with 2:19 remaining in the game. The TD pass was a milestone for both players, as it was the 100th TD pass in Kofoed’s career and the pass completion also put Weber over 1,000 receiving yards for the season. Weber became the first Johnnie to go over 1,000 yards receiving on a season since 2003 when Blake Elliott exceeded the 1,000 yard receiving milestone.
The Johnnie defense also looked to be confused and out of position through much of the first quarter as Central’s QB, Tim Connell sliced and diced the defense in a fashion that I have not witnessed in many years. A pair of 1st. quarter TD passes to Cody Huisman set the tone for the day. The second TD from Connell to Huisman was an 89-yard catch and run when the Johnnie defense had the Dutch pinned on 3rd down and 10 to go from the Dutch 11-yard line.
The Johnnie defense did stiffen in the 2nd quarter only yielding a FG when they certainly could of given up a TD, by stopping the Dutch three times inside the 2-yardline. This was the point in the game I thought that a fire would be lit under the Johnnies and the offense would feed off this defensive stop. I was wrong. A missed FG attempt prior to halftime would have cut the deficit to 14 points. Momentum never shifted in the Johnnies favor and a series of drive stopping miscues signaled an end to the Johnnies season.
For the seniors this is a bittersweet end to a career. Football has finality to it, especially play-off football. Nobody wants their season to end with a loss, but the cruel reality is that only one team each year will win their final game. After a few days, the sting of the defeat will subside and life will go on as usual. The life lessons learned from a wise elderly gentleman named John Gagliardi are something these young men will look back on with fondness in the coming days, weeks and years.
This group of young men will now pass from the role of player to the role of fan. The journey they are about to begin is one, which thousands of young men have made over the years, the path is well worn. This is Johnnie Football; we welcome you to the Johnnie Nation.
