Box Score

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – Cayden Saxon and his Saint John's University teammates dug themselves some fairly deep holes during Saturday afternoon's season-opener against No. 4 Trinity (Texas).

In fact, there were times those holes seemed more like canyons. 

Yet, even at the lowest point, Saxon said the sixth-ranked Johnnies never stopped climbing. And, in the end, that effort was enough to come out on top.

SJU rallied from down 17 early in the fourth quarter, scoring the game's final 20 points to emerge with a wild 34-31 overtime victory before a crowd of 9,883 on a sweltering day at Clemens Stadium.

"The big takeaway is we're never going to be out of it," said Saxon (Minnetonka, Minn./Hopkins), the senior whose interception on the Tigers' first offensive play in overtime sealed the win after the Johnnies got a 35-yard field goal from junior Conor Murphy (Sioux Falls, S.D./O'Gorman) on their first possession.

"This team is going to fight the whole game. We never got down on ourselves. We were saying the whole game, 'Keep our heads up. We can always make a comeback.' 

"And sure enough, we made the plays on offense and defense that we needed to. Now we're here celebrating."



That comeback started after Trinity senior Tyler Huettel - a transfer from MIAC-foe St. Olaf - kicked a 26-yard field goal to put Trinity on top 31-14 with 12:47 left to play. The Johnnies - who had run just 35 plays through the first three quarters to the Tigers' 52, and who had the ball only 16 minutes and 44 seconds compared to Trinity's 28:16 - marched 75 yards in 10 plays to score on a 14-yard pass from senior quarterback Aaron Syverson (Minnetonka, Minn.) to junior wide receiver Marselio Mendez (St. Paul, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall).

The extra-point attempt was no good, leaving the Tigers on top 31-20. But after the SJU defense held Trinity to three-and-out and forced a punt, Syverson and Mendez connected again on a 32-yard touchdown pass. The two-point conversion shaved the deficit to 31-28 with 4:21 to go.

"My teammates, my brothers, kept me level-headed," said Mendez, who saw more action after senior standout Jimmy Buck (Orono, Minn.) left with an early knee injury. "At the beginning, I was out of my game a little bit. But the boys brought me back. We went into the field house (at halftime), said a few prayers and came back out. 

"Eventually, the momentum just started changing."

And it continued swinging in the Johnnies' favor when sophomore defensive back Noah Arneson (Independence, Minn./Orono) recovered a fumble forced by senior defensive lineman Joe Akoh (Hugo, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall) on Trinity's first play after the ensuing kickoff. SJU then advanced as far as the Tigers' 5 before settling for a 24-yard field goal by Murphy that tied the score at 31 with just 53 seconds left on the clock.



But Trinity wasn't content to play for overtime. And, when preseason All-American quarterback Tucker Horn completed a 37-yard pass to sophomore Will Taylor, the Tigers had the ball at the Johnnies' 6-yard line. On the next play, though, SJU senior linebacker Erik Bjork (Mahtomedi, Minn.) forced a Horn fumble that junior defensive lineman Zach Frank (Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial) returned to the Johnnies' 21.

Syverson then took a knee to run out the clock in regulation.

"We just kept fighting," Syverson said. "The defense hung in there and made plays when we needed them to. Two fumbles and then the pick at the end. Without those plays, this comeback doesn't happen. As much as we came back on offense, it was really the defense that got this done."

Indeed, after the Johnnies went up by three on Murphy's field goal, Saxon was there for the game-sealing interception, then was promptly swept up in the celebration.

"Man, that was crazy," he said. "I had people all over me. (co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach Brandon) Novak told me they were going to look for that two-seam. Their guy ran right up the seam and I was ready for it."

Syverson finished the game 24 of 33 passing for 281 yards and four touchdowns. Mendez caught seven passes for 55 yards and senior All-America tight end Alex Larson (Woodbury, Minn./East Ridge) led SJU with eight catches for 60 yards. Senior running back Troy Feddema (St. Cloud, Minn./Tech) rushed for a career-high 91 yards on 18 carries (5.1 avg.). Defensively, junior linebacker Cooper Yaggie (Breckenridge, Minn.) led SJU with 10 tackles (six solo), including two for a loss and a quarterback sack.

The Tigers piled up 438 yards of total offense to the Johnnies' 368. Horn threw for 352 yards and two touchdowns despite leaving the game briefly in the fourth quarter and again on the Tigers' lone play in overtime.

"Trinity is really good," SJU coach Gary Fasching '81 said. "That quarterback (Horn) is certainly right up there with the best we've ever faced. He was that good. But we made a lot of first-game mistakes.

"We didn't play very well, except for the last part of the fourth quarter and overtime when we made some plays. I think we're going to look back and see a lot of mistakes we made. But the fact that we hung in there, kept at it and never gave up was really big."

It doesn't get easier for Fasching's team next week. The Johnnies go on the road to face No. 11 Wisconsin-Whitewater at 1 p.m. next Saturday in Perkins Stadium.

But Saxon said his team's belief in itself will only grow after this week's comeback win.

"Ups and downs right," he said. "Football is a game of peaks and valleys and we never gave up today. It was just about staying true to what we do. We worked hard in practice, put in the work all week and we came out on top."

Overtime
Today's season opener was the 10th overtime game in program history. The victory evened the Johnnies' record in overtime games at 5-5, including 2-2 in Collegeville.

-Sept. 2, 2023: Trinity (Texas); W, 34-31 (OT)
-Nov. 2, 2019: Concordia; L, 18-19 (OT)     
-Nov. 2, 2013: at Gustavus Adolphus; L, 20-23 (2OT)     
-Sept. 17, 2011: at Concordia; W, 28-21 (OT)      
-Oct. 2, 2010: St. Thomas; L, 26-27 (OT)     
-Sept. 11, 2010: at Wisconsin-Eau Claire; L, 20-23 (OT)         
-Oct. 17, 2009: St. Thomas; W, 20-17 (OT)     
-Oct. 25, 2008: at St. Olaf; W, 20-14 (OT)        
-Sept. 7, 2002: at Wisconsin-Eau Claire; L, 21-28 (OT)     
-Nov. 25, 2000: at Pacific Lutheran (Wash.); W, 28-21 (OT) *NCAA Playoffs

Season-Opening Success Continues
SJU is now 81-28-3 (.737) all-time in season openers, including a 10-0 record under the direction of Fasching. The Johnnies have won each of their last 18 season openers, 19 of their last 20, and 35 of their last 39 since 1984. 

Halftime Deficit in a Win
The 14-point, halftime deficit (21-7) was the largest halftime deficit that SJU has overcome in a win since Oct. 8, 1994, when the Johnnies battled back from a 15-point margin (28-13) in an eventual 35-34 victory at St. Thomas.