In last week’s column, I mentioned that the sun always shines on Johnnie Football. Um, yeah… It’s apparent that Mother Nature is not a regular reader of JohnnieFootball.com.
Fortunately, the football gods were on the Johnnies’ side on Saturday. In a game that was controlled by St. John’s at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and never seemed as close as the scoreboard claimed, the Johnnies knocked off the Falcons of UW-River Falls by a 22-6 margin.
Here’s a look at some of the numbers that shaped the Johnnie victory, which pushed their record to 2-0 as they prepare for a showdown with the Concordia Cobbers to kick off MIAC play this weekend:
Defense Sets the Tone: The Johnnies couldn’t have been thrilled to only be leading by a 10-0 margin entering halftime. Michael Crees short-circuited a 15 play, 66 yard drive right before the break by throwing an interception in the Falcons end zone that would have stretched the lead even further. Still, with the way the Johnnie defense played in the first half, any lead had to feel reasonably secure.
Coming into the game, there were serious questions about how the inexperienced St. John’s secondary would be able to stop Storm Harmon, Michael Zweifel, and the talented UW-River Falls passing attack. Those questions were quickly answered as Harmon didn’t complete a single pass in the first half—including two incompletions intended for Zweifel—and the Falcons only managed 66 total yards and three first downs for the half.
Another Johnnie First Down!: One of the keys to the Johnnies jumping out to an early lead was their ability to control the ball. In the first half, St. John’s converted 6 of 10 third down attempts and both of their 4th down conversion tries. Their ability to move the chains gave them a decided advantage in the time of possession for the half, as they controlled the ball for 22:01 to the Falcons’ 7:59.
The Falcons went oh-for-four on third down in the first half and didn’t convert on third down until Storm Harmon scored a touchdown on a third-and-goal quarterback keeper from the Johnnie 1-yard line. For the game, the Falcons failed on 9 of 10 3rd down conversion attempts and their only 4th down try.
Waking the Sleeping Giant: When Harmon put UW-River Falls on the board with his aforementioned touchdown run early in the fourth quarter, the Johnnies found themselves in a precarious position. They had dominated the statistical battle all afternoon, but the numbers that mattered the most—the 10-6 margin on the scoreboard—was perilously close and the Falcons were gaining momentum.
Bryan Virnig returned the ensuing kickoff 40 yards to midfield for the Johnnies, and from that point on there was no looking back. Crees quarterbacked St. John’s to methodical touchdown drives (covering 50 yards in 8 plays and 67 yards in 11 plays), taking nearly 10 valuable minutes off of the 4th quarter game clock. The offensive line was especially impressive on the second drive, opening huge holes for a host of runners, including Virnig who gained 25 yards on three late carries. By the time Crees punched in the second touchdown on a nifty run from 6 yards out, the Falcons were facing a 22-6 deficit with only a minute and 12 seconds to rectify the situation.
Bracketed by those two long touchdown drives was an impressive defensive stand that squashed any momentum UW-River Falls was hoping to build. After the Johnnies tallied only one sack in the first three and a half quarters, the defensive line took over. Ryan Wimmer and Jimmy Sharpe teamed up to throw a Falcons runner for a loss of four followed by a 6-yard Joe Luke sack on the next play. The back-to-back left the Falcons in 4th-and-long and forced them to punt.
Keep on Running: A week after being held to a disappointing 51 yards rushing on 43 attempts and failing to break a single run of 10 yards or more, the Johnnie rushing attack broke out in a big way on Saturday. Facing a driving rain and occasionally pesky winds that made passing the ball difficult, St. John’s committed to running the football. That commitment paid off. The Johnnies tallied 215 yards on the ground, a total they only exceeded twice in the 2007 season. While the Johnnies don’t publish records for most rushing attempts in a game, their 57 attempts on Saturday is the most in recent memory, narrowly surpassing the Johnnies’ 56 attempts in similarly rainy conditions at Carleton last season.
The star runner for St. John’s was Jakob Reding. A week after being held to minus-2 yards on 3 carries in his Johnnie debut, the sophomore transfer from Air Force carried the ball 12 times for a team-leading 71 yards, an impressive 5.9 yards per attempt. Jeff Schnobrich and Michael Crees contributed rushing touchdows and three different Johnnies had rushing plays of at least 10 yards (Reding, Schnobrich, Bryan Virnig, and Josh Overman).
Quick Hits: The Johnnies held UW-River Falls’ preseason All-American receiver Michael Zweifel to two catches for 38 yards. The two receptions ties a career low for the sophomore… After the Johnnies played three quarterbacks in their season opener against East Texas Baptist, Michael Crees took all the snaps against UW-River Falls… Tight end Brett Saladin had the only touchdown reception for St. John’s. His 8-yard first quarter scoring catch made him the 4th Johnnie to make a TD grab this season, from 3 different passers… An announced crowd of 3,617 braved the elements to take in the game. That’s the smallest crowd from a St. John’s home game since only 2,892 showed up on a cold December day in 2003 to watch the Johnnies knock off Rensselaer Poly in the playoffs for a trip to the Stagg Bowl.
