In the Robert Browning fairytale, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, the piper freed the town of rats. On Saturday, the Hamline University Pipers were on a mission to free their campus of the rats who had invaded from SJU and in doing so, saving Homecoming for the Piper alumni and students. There were a couple of problems, this is a different Hamline than that of the fairytale, as you can see there is no “e” in this Hamline, and these Pipers didn’t have magic flutes. There were rats everywhere,both in the stands as well as on Klas Field. The rats of SJU who were on the field caused many more problems for the Pipers of Hamline than those in the stands. The rats in the stands are harmless…a little bit annoying to those unaccustomed, but harmless. The rats on Klas Field scored 41 points, created 8 QB sacks, forced and recovered 2 fumbles and intercepted 2 passes, before the clock ran out and the rats returned to Collegeville with the promise of squaring off with a bunch of tomcats next week at Clemens Stadium.
The Johnnies won the coin toss and elected to defer their choice until the second half. The Pipers elected to receive and the Johnnies chose to defend the north goal, with the north wind gusting through out the day, this was a decision that proved to be most productive.
The Johnnie defense forced a 3-and-out after the opening kick off and with the Pipers punting into the wind, the Johnnies took advantage of a short field. On their very first offensive play of the ball game, Jakob Reding took a hand off down the left side 45 yards to pay dirt in the south end zone and following a successful PAT by Russell Gliadon the score was 7-0 in favor of SJU.
After the Johnnie defense forced another 3 -and-out the Johnnie offense took a bit more time to score by stringing together an 11 play drive which was capped off by a 1-yard TD run by Stephen Johnson followed by the Gliadon PAT bringing the score 14-0 in favor of the Johnnies.
Following the kick off, the Johnnie defense struck again as David Burns forced and recovered a fumble to give the Johnnie offense yet another short field. Joe Boyle took advantage of the momentum and tossed a scoring pass to Andrew Rotschafer. The one armed grab by Rotschafer has to be one for the highlight reel 2009 as he snared the ball with his left hand and then cradled it against his body while retaining possession as he landed on the end zone turf. After the Russell Gliadon PAT the score was SJU 21-0 over Hamline. This ended the scoring for the 1st quarter.
The Pipers were to score their only touchdown of the day as they blocked a Russell Gliadon punt early in the 2nd quarter as the Johnnies were now operating into a persistent north wind.
The Johnnies did answer by running 8 consecutive plays covering 48 yards, being capped off by a 3 yard Kellen Blazer touchdown run. The PAT by Gliadon was not successful making the score SJU 27-Hamline 7.
The Johnnies would score one more time prior to intermission on another short field opportunity set up the the Johnnie special team unit as Dan Franta blocked a Hamline punt. Joe Boyle scored just as time expired in the 1st half, followed up by the PAT from Gliadon making the halftime score SJU 34 -Hamline 7.
The Johnnies elected to take the wind at their back to begin the 2nd half but were unable to score in the 3rd quarter. The Johnnie defense set up the final score of the day as linebacker Billy Lawrence intercepted a pass and returned it to the 1-yard line. The following play Jimmy Loonan scored on a 1-yard run followed by the PAT from Gliadon to make the final score SJU 41 Hamline 7.
Offensively the Johnnies were led by Joe Boyle who was 8 for 16 for 85 yards and 1 touchdown passing through the air. Boyle also ran for a touchdown.
The ground game was led by Jakob Reding who had 8 attempts for 78 yards and a touchdown. Kellen Blaser had 13 attempts for 76 yards and a touchdown.
Andrew Rotschafer was the main target through the air finishing the game with 3 catches for 58 yards and a touchdown.
The defense played like they had something to prove after some sub-par performances,by SJU standards, in earlier games and they were very successful in that regard.
The team was led statistically by Evan Cobb who had 9 tackles, an interception and a sack. John Stanton had 5 tackles and a sack. Kyle Schroeder had 4 tackles and a sack. Dan Franta had 4 tackles, a blocked punt and 1/2 sack. David Burns had 3 tackles a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. Other Johnnies contributing to this statistical masterpiece were Billy Lawrence with an interception as well as Ryan Wimmer,Phil Orzechowski, Jack Daggett, Luke Sweeter and Jeff Bohlman all contributing to the sack total and Nate Anderson also recovering a fumble.
The Johnnies took this opportunity to rest some players that had nagging injuries as well as getting some valuable game experience for some younger players. This was a good win with some teachable moments for the younger kids as well as the more experience players. The team will savor this victory over the weekend, but come Monday they will review film of the game and then press “erase”. Next week brings another opponent who also has an undefeated record and a national ranking along with revenge for a game last year that was played in St. Paul. It has been many years since a Johnnie-Tommie game has had conference title along with national ranking implications associated with it, but Johnnie fans know one thing that doesn’t seem to change over the years which is Tommies will be Tommies….take that for what it’s worth!