By Mike Killeen

Box Score

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – For the first three games of the season, the offensive unit of the No. 6 Saint John's University football pretty much did what it wanted to.

Saint John's had averaged 67.1 points, 519.7 yards of offense and converted 60.6 percent of its third down opportunities in blowout wins over St. Scholastica, Presentation (S.D.) and St. Olaf.

Saturday turned out to be a different story, however.

Playing in front of an NCAA Division III-record crowd of 37,355 fans – the majority of whom were Johnnies' fans – the SJU offense never got on track in a 20-17 loss to No. 10/11 St. Thomas (2-0, 3-1 overall) at Target Field. 

St. Thomas outgained the Johnnies (3-1, 1-1 MIAC), 386-151 in total yardage. The Tommies ran 76 plays; Saint John's 43.

SJU did not convert a third-down opportunity in the game, going 0-for-11 (SJU was also 0-for-1 on fourth down conversions). The Johnnies entered the game at 60.6 percent (20-for-33) on third down.

And, the Johnnies were held to 1 yard rushing. St. Thomas had 156 rushing yards.

The offensive woes negated a strong showing by the Johnnies' defense. SJU forced an interception, blocked a punt and recovered a fumble on a muffed punt return. Senior linebacker David Franta (Winnebago, Minn./Blue Earth Area) had 14 tackles (six solo) to lead the Johnnie defense, which was on the field for almost 39 minutes (compared to 21:12 for the Johnnies' offense).

It all added up to the Johnnies' fourth consecutive loss to the Tommies. The last time the Tommies won four consecutive games in the series was from 1954-57. This was the 87th game between the two schools (51-35-1 record in favor of SJU).

The Johnnies received the opening kickoff, but were forced to punt after three plays. Junior Naufahu Anitoni's (Fairfield, Calif./Justin-Siena) punt was fumbled by Vinny Pallini, with junior running back Robbie Skiba (Pierz, Minn.) recovering at the UST 25-yard line. SJU could not fully capitalize on the early break, and were forced to settle for junior Zach Barwick's (Littleton, Colo./Dakota Ridge) 31-yard field goal.

The Tommies responded with two scoring drives, capped by Jacques Perra's 31-yard pass to Matt Christenson with 2:06 to play in the first quarter, and Perra's 61-yard pass to Gabe Green with 6:15 to play in the second quarter to take a 14-3 lead.

A 19-yard punt return by Max Jackson set up the Johnnies on the UST 31-yard line. On the next play, sophomore quarterback Jackson Erdmann (Rosemount, Minn.) found junior tight end Jared Streit (Watkins, Minn./Eden Valley-Watkins) for a 31-yard scoring play with 2:27 to play in the first half. Streit reached around a St. Thomas defender to make the catch, evaded a tackle and reached the corner of the end zone.

But St. Thomas countered with a 11-play, 62-yard drive that culminated in a 34-yard field goal from Bryan Steinsapir with seven seconds left before halftime to take a 17-10 lead.

The Tommies increased their lead to 20-10 on a 43-yard field goal by Steinsapir with 4:30 to play in the third quarter. That followed a 12-play, 47-yard drive. 

Saint John's could not move the ball offensively in the third quarter, and had minus-3 yards of offense in the quarter on six offensive plays. The Tommies snapped the ball 21 times for 102 total yards.

An interception by junior cornerback Sam Westby (Lake Elmo, Minn./Hill-Murray) at the goal line with 9:27 to play in the game thwarted a long, time-consuming UST drive that began in the third quarter and continued into the fourth. Three pass incompletions followed, with the Johnnies arguing that Clark was interfered with on a fly pattern down the right sideline on third-and-10.

The Tommies had a three-and-out series, and on fourth down, a blocked punt by sophomore safey Ryan LaCasse (Mountlake Terrace, Wash.) with 6:20 to play set up SJU at its own 49-yard line. The offense woke up when Erdmann found a streaking Evan Clark (Phoenix, Ariz./Apollo) down the left sideline for a 40-yard touchdown pass two plays later. The fleet Clark had a step on the Tommie defender and easily skipped into the end zone in front of the SJU student section. It was Clark's first touchdown reception of the season.

The Johnnie defense forced a three-and-out, and forced a St. Thomas punt. SJU took over on its own 21 with 3:29 to play, but could only move the ball 9 yards and lost the ball on downs. The Johnnies had the ball for a total of 1:26 in the fourth quarter.

SJU returns to action next Saturday, Sept. 30, for Family Weekend and its Tackle Cancer game against Bethel (1-3, 1-1 MIAC) at Clemens Stadium.