By Frank Rajkowski & Ryan Klinkner '04

Box Score | SJU Press Conference | WAR Press Conference

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – There are a multitude of ways tight end Alex Larson (Woodbury, Minn./East Ridge) and his Saint John's University teammates can look back on Saturday afternoon's 23-20 second-round playoff loss to Wartburg (Iowa) and wonder if things might have turned out differently.

But, in the end, Larson said it really all came down to turnovers: five of them, in fact. 

By far the most for the Johnnies in a single game all season.

"When you turn the ball over five times, it makes it tough to win any game," said Larson, whose team finished its season 10-2 overall before a crowd of 2,348 on a sunny late-November day at Clemens Stadium. 

"That certainly wasn't what we had planned, and we still had a chance to win this game at the end. But, when it was all said and done, we just didn't make the plays we needed to make to get the win."

The turnovers started on SJU's very first play from scrimmage. After the Knights (12-0) marched 82 yards in 11 plays on the game's opening possession to take a 6-0 lead on a 3-yard touchdown run by senior Hunter Clasen, linebacker Owen Grover – this season's defensive MVP in the American Rivers Conference – picked off an Aaron Syverson pass and returned it to the Johnnies' 48.

That set up a 35-yard field goal by junior Cael O'Neill that put Wartburg on top 9-0.

A 27-yard field goal by sophomore Conor Murphy (Sioux Falls, S.D./O'Gorman) later in the first quarter cut the gap to 9-3, and the Johnnies advanced all the way to the Wartburg 1-yard line on their next drive. But they were then stopped shy of the goal line on three-straight plays and turned the ball over on downs.

"Every week, we say they're not in (the end zone) until they're in," said Grover, whose team entered the game as the top-ranked defense in NCAA Division III both against the run and in the red zone. "Don't flinch. Keep fighting. And that was a huge (stop) there."

SJU was able to cut the gap to 9-6 on a 28-yard Murphy field goal before the Knights followed with another big stop. Sophomore safety Parker Rochford came up with an interception on 2nd-and-3 at the Wartburg 20.

That pick set the stage for a 29-yard touchdown pass from senior Nile McLaughlin to sophomore Carter Henry that sent the Knights into halftime leading 16-6.

"This was a tough one," said SJU coach Gary Fasching '81, whose team came away with just two touchdowns on six trips inside the red zone in all Saturday. "We made a lot of mistakes, especially early in the ballgame. You can't do that in the playoffs against good teams."

The tough breaks continued for SJU on the opening drive in the second half when a low snap on a punt resulted in a strip that Rochford returned 12-yards for a touchdown to expand the Wartburg lead to 23-6.

But then the momentum began to swing back toward the Johnnies, who cut the gap to 23-13 on a 4-yard touchdown run by junior Tony Underwood (Eagan, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall) with 7:39 remaining in the third quarter. 

McLaughlin exited the game after he was injured later in the third quarter. And, on the next play, sophomore backup Carter Markham was sacked for a 2-yard loss by senior linebacker Erik Bjork (Mahtomedi, Minn.) on 4th-and-1 at the SJU 37.

The Johnnies then marched 61 yards in six plays to score on a 17-yard run by junior Troy Feddema (St. Cloud, Minn./Tech) – SJU's longest run from scrimmage of the game. That shaved the Wartburg lead to 23-20 entering the fourth quarter.

"I have to give our guys a lot of credit because we were down and we kept coming back," Fasching said. "We gave ourselves a chance to win at the end of the game."

After throwing another interception, then being forced to punt on its first two drives in the final quarter, the Johnnies did indeed get one last chance after the defense stopped Wartburg on downs at the SJU 31 with 3:41 remaining.

The Johnnies moved the ball to their own 42 before senior linebacker Antonio Santillan – whom Knights head coach Chris Winter said had been battling injury the past several weeks – stepped in front of a Syverson pass and made a game-sealing interception.

One final turnover on a day when each proved costly.

"I've said this to our guys all year, but I truly believe the only team that can beat us is ourselves," said Larson, who finished with eight catches for 69 yards despite briefly leaving the game with what he said was a stinger in the first half. "I'm not discrediting Wartburg by any means. They're a great team and they played a great game today. They deserved to win.

"The fact that it came down to a three-point game in the end, and that we had chances to win, is disappointing. But when you turn the ball over as much as we did, it's hard to overcome."

Wartburg – ranked No. 12 in the nation in the final D3football.com Division III poll of the regular season – advances to meet Aurora (Ill.) in the quarterfinals at noon next Saturday (Dec. 3). The Spartans – who knocked off No. 22 Alma (Mich.) 48-26 in the second round Saturday – will likely travel to Waverly, Iowa for that game. The NCAA will officially announce the host sites Sunday.

SJU – ranked No. 4 nationally – will start looking ahead to next season, though Larson said the disappointment of what might have been will linger for a bit.

"I'm grateful for everything we've been able to achieve," said Larson, who is planning to return and take advantage of an extra year of eligibility granted to student-athletes by the NCAA as a result of the impact of COVID-19. 

"But I'm going to look back and feel like there should have been a lot more football left. We have a lot of our guys coming back next year. So hopefully we can use this as motivation and go out and make something happen."

• The Johnnies are now 49-27 all-time in the postseason (44-26 in Division III), including 8-7 in the NCAA or NAIA second round (5-2 in Collegeville).

• SJU is 45-6 since 2018. All six losses were decided by four points or less with a -14 turnover differential (six takeaways and 20 turnovers).