Saint John's junior running back Nick Schneider (Rockville, Minn./Rocori) scored each of the Johnnies’ first three touchdowns in the 52-7 season-opening win over Northwestern last Saturday. The first was a 13-yard scamper on fourth-and-three with 3:44 left in the first quarter and the second was an eight-yard plunge at the 10:20 mark of the second quarter. He then caught a 12-yard touchdown pass from junior Connor Bruns (Baltimore, Md./Loyola Blakefield) with 5:36 left in the first half and ended the day with 52 yards on 10 carries.
He became the first Johnnie to score the first three touchdowns of a game since Corey Weber ran for four straight in SJU’s 41-6 win at Hamline on Oct. 2, 2004. Weber ended the afternoon with 182 yards and five touchdowns on 29 carries. The three-touchdown game was not the first of Schneider’s career, however. He rushed for 179 yards and three scores on 14 carries in the 33-13 win over Gustavus Adolphus on Oct. 23, 2010, in Collegeville.
Schneider enters Saturday’s game at Wisconsin-Eau Claire, a 1 p.m. kickoff, with 101 yards rushing on 19 carries (5.3 avg.), as well as 34 yards and a touchdown on three catches, in two career games against the Blugolds.
