In 2003 Jake Theis Helped John Gagliardi to a Close Victory and Win #408!
Even though the St. Thomas Tommies have dropped the last 10 meetings with their arch rival, the St. John’s Johnnies, they have to feel pretty confident about their chances when the teams meet for the 77th time this weekend in St. Paul. The Johnnies, uncharacteristically, have already been saddled with two losses this season. Meanwhile, down on Summit Ave., new head coach Glenn Caruso has the Tommies playing as well as they have in recent memory.
Caruso took over a Tommie team coming off a disappointing 2-8 season in 2007. While they didn’t return a single all-conference player, they have already doubled their win total from last year, and the only blemish on their record is a heartbreaking 29-23 loss to St. Olaf in 7 overtimes. Their first three victories came against typically weak opponents Macalester, Hamline, and Gustavus, but the Tommies’ fourth victory was their biggest in years: they traveled to Moorhead last weekend and handed MIAC-favorite Concordia their first conference loss of the season, 14-13.
The Johnnies need to win all of their remaining games and hope for some help along the way if they hope to make the postseason. At the same time, the Tommies find themselves in unfamiliar territory: they are looking down at St. John’s in the standings and control their own playoff destiny halfway through the season.
Tommies on Offense
The 2008 Tommies feature a balanced offensive attack. They have rushed for 167.8 yards per game and have passed for 185 yards per game. The surprise offensive star has been freshman wide receiver Fritz Waldvogel (Mendota Heights/St. Thomas Academy, 5-9/160). He leads St. Thomas by a wide margin in receptions (30) and receiving yards (474) and has contributed a pair of receiving touchdowns. He has also seen extensive action as a kick and punt returner.
The man throwing the ball to Waldvogel should be familiar to Johnnie fans. Senior quarterback David Sauer (6-4/205), who backed up future Johnnie superstar Alex Kofoed at Rocori High School, has started since the middle of his freshman season. He has 5 touchdown passes on the year against only 3 interceptions and has thrown for over 5,000 yards in his career.
Two young newcomers to the Tommie backfield should see most of the rushing chances against St. John’s. Sophomore Ben Wartman (Prior Lake, 6-2/190) is coming off of back-to-back 100-yard rushing performances and got the starting nod for the first time in his career last week against Concordia. Wartman, who spent his freshman year at St. Thomas as a wide receiver, leads the Tommies with 556 rushing yards and 6 rushing scores while averaging an impressive 6.0 yards per carry. He takes over the starting running back spot from sophomore Mike Duncombe (Shoreview/Mounds View, 5-10/175). Duncombe spent his freshman year at Division II Truman State, the same school the Johnnies’ 2007 leading rusher Mike Patnode attended before transferring to St. John’s.
Sauer had a career game against St. John’s in 2007, completing 24 of 40 passes for 334 yards and 4 TDs while the offense put up an impressive 34 points in a losing effort. The Johnnies were playing their first game without injured middle linebacker Ryan Wimmer, who proved to be a linchpin for the defense. Still, the Johnnies are going to have to play much better defensively if they hope to keep up with the Tommies this season.
Tommies on Defense
The emerging defensive star for the Tommies is junior inside linebacker Tommy Becker (Wayzata, 6-2/250) who spent two years playing for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers before transferring to St. Thomas prior to this season. He is second on the team in tackles and has a sack among his 4.5 tackles for a loss. Sophomore inside linebacker Tony Danna (Lake Elmo/Hill Murray, 6-0/225) leads the team with 35 tackles and 5.5 tackles for a loss, and teams with Becker to provide a formidable linebacking duo at the core the Tommies’ 3-4 defense.
The strong play by the Tommie linebackers has masked the lack of production along the defensive line. Only 2 of the teams 13 sacks have come from Saturday’s expected starters at the three line positions.
The big plays in the secondary have come courtesy of junior safety Brady Ervin (Eden Prairie, 6-2/210) and sophomore cornerback Kirk Baglien (Minneapolis Washburn, 5-10/175). Ervin, who spent the last two seasons playing football at Division I Iowa State, leads the team with 3 interceptions and also recovered a fumble. Her returned one of the interceptions for a touchdown, the only defensive score the Tommies have had on the season, and leads the St. Thomas secondary in tackles. Baglien has the Tommies’ only other two interceptions and has broken up a team-leading 5 passes.
One season after allowing over 35 points per game, the 2008 Tommies are allowing only 16 points per game in regulation. The Johnnies have struggled this season against big, physical defensive lines, and while the St. Thomas defensive line hasn’t produced much in 2008, the Tommies’ star linebackers are sure to cause some headaches up front for the Johnnies. It’s unlikely the Tommies will allow the Johnnies to put up anywhere close to the 51 points they scored in last year’s meeting.
Overall
Don’t expect anything like last year’s 51-34 shootout win for the Johnnies, a game that featured 872 yards of total offense and a pair of quarterbacks throwing for over 300 yards. The Tommies have been revitalized by an influx of talent on both sides of the ball. Still, they haven’t exactly been blowing teams out, as they’ve only outscored conference opponents by 6 points in racking up a 3-1 conference record. What they have done is kept each game close and found a way to hold a lead (or at least a tie) at the final whistle.
This will be a good test for the inconsistent Johnnie offense, which has failed its two toughest tests of the season so far, Concordia and Bethel. If the Johnnies can handle the unique 3-4 defensive look they will get from the Tommies, they should be able to cobble together enough points to complement what should be another stellar defensive performance.
The future is certainly bright for St. Thomas—of all of their key players, only Sauer is a senior and many have spent only a half season with St. Thomas. The blow of losing Sauer next season will be softened by having freshman quarterback Greg Morse (perhaps the best newcomer of them all) waiting in the wings. If the Tommies don’t snap their decade-long losing streak to the Johnnies this weekend there’s a good chance it will happen sometime in the next few seasons. Still, even in a rivalry situation, it’s hard to go against a team that’s had as much success against another team as the Johnnies have had against the Tommies. Expect St. John’s to pull out a nail biter and keep their dim playoff hopes alive.
