Box Score

ST. PETER, Minn. - Missed opportunities and big plays.

That was the combination that doomed the seventh-ranked Saint John's University football team in a 38-35 MIAC Northwoods Division loss at Gustavus Adolphus on Saturday afternoon (Oct. 21) at Hollingsworth Field.

The Johnnies surrendered 465 yards of total offense - including 353 through the air - and came away with no points despite twice moving the ball inside the Gusties' 10-yard-line on a pair of drives in the second half.

"We have to be able to finish drives," said senior wide receiver Nick VanErp (Battle Lake, Minn./Ottertail Central), who finished with seven catches for 105 yards and two touchdowns. "We shot ourselves in the foot a few times by making mistakes that we shouldn't be making."

The Johnnies fell to 4-1 in MIAC play and 5-2 overall. Gustavus - which had not defeated SJU since 2013 - improved to 3-2 in the conference and 4-3 overall.

Gustavus quarterback George Sandven had a big day, finishing 25 of 37 passing for 353 yards and three touchdowns. That included a 43-yard Hail Mary to sophomore Caden Kleinschmidt as time expired in the first half that put the Gustavus in front 24-21 at halftime.

"They had a good offensive attack," SJU coach Gary Fasching '81 said. "I said that all week. They can run the football, they've got good receivers. They should have been 5-1 coming into this game. They've had some really tough losses.

"They found a few things that worked to their benefit on offense and they kept running them."

SJU jumped out to a 14-0 lead early thanks to an 8-yard touchdown catch by VanErp, then a 59-yard interception return by freshman cornerback Peyton Goettlicher (Mankato, Minn./West) with 7:49 still remaining in the first quarter. 

But a 66-yard return on the ensuing kickoff by senior Rohee Konde set up a 2-yard touchdown run by sophomore Walker Britz. Then senior Andrew Abegglen kicked a 26-yard field goal early in the second quarter to cut the gap to 14-10. 

The Johnnies pulled ahead 21-10 when senior Aaron Syverson (Minnetonka, Minn.) connected with classmate Troy Feddema (St. Cloud, Minn./Tech) on a 30-yard touchdown pass before Sandven found senior Matthew Carreon on a 7-yard scoring strike with 2:29 to go in the first half, then evaded pressure to fire the ball into the end zone to Kleinschmidt to end the half and put his team in front for the first time.

"They were doing a lot of motion and I think that threw us off," SJU senior defensive back Cayden Saxon (Minnetonka, Minn./Hopkins) said. "Sometimes we get a little frantic and we just need to calm down out there."

The Gusties continued to build on their momentum when Sandven scored on a 1-yard run on the opening drive of the second half to expand the lead to 10. But a 45-yard touchdown catch and scamper by VanErp and a 7-yard touchdown run by senior Devin Vouk (Sartell, Minn./Sartell-St. Stephen) put the Johnnies back on top 35-31 with 5:38 remaining in the third quarter. 

However, Sandven and Konde connected on a 49-yard touchdown pass - that was just over Goettlicher's hands - on the next Gustavus series to give the Gusties back the lead at 38-35. 

And that was where the day's scoring ended, even though SJU had the ball at the Gustavus 9 late in the third quarter. The Johnnies elected to go for it on 4th-and-1 and Vouk was stopped for a loss of three. Then, after sophomore safety Noah Arneson (Independence, Minn./Orono) recovered a fumble at the SJU 24 in the fourth quarter, the Johnnies - aided by a couple of key Gustavus penalties - marched the ball to the Gusties' 7.

A false start penalty moved the ball back to the 12 and Syverson's pass was picked off by sophomore Eric Lyons in the end zone with 1:50 remaining on the clock. Gustavus then ran out the clock.

"In retrospect, I should have kicked a field goal (on the 4th-and-1 in the third quarter)," Fasching said. "That's on me. I made that decision. We had short yardage, but we missed a couple of blocks.

"We just made too many mistakes today. On 4th-and-1, we have to be able to make that. You have to give credit to them too, though. They made some big plays."

So now SJU will try to regroup heading into its final regular season home game against St. Scholastica (2-5, 1-4 MIAC) at 1 p.m. next Saturday, Oct. 28, in Clemens Stadium.

"We just have to win next week," Fasching said. "We can't look beyond that. We have to take it one game at a time, just like we've tried to do all season."

"We need to figure out the mistakes we made today and work on fixing them," VanErp added. "We can't let ourselves dwell on this one too long."