Box Score

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – Cooper Yaggie and the rest of the Saint John's University defense were men on a mission in Saturday afternoon's MIAC opener against Bethel.

That task? Bouncing back from a tough outing two weeks ago.

And the Johnnies - ranked No. 8 in the most recent D3football.com Division III national poll - did just that, holding the Royals - ranked as high as No. 18 - to just one first-half touchdown en route to a 27-7 victory before a Family Weekend crowd of 11,321 in Clemens Stadium.

"We all had a chip on our shoulder," said Yaggie (Breckenridge, Minn.), who led his team (2-1, 1-0 MIAC) with 12 tackles and recorded a third-quarter interception. "We flew around and had a lot more fun today. You could tell how much we wanted this."

The performance came on the heels of a tough outing at Wisconsin-Whitewater on Sept. 9 when SJU gave up five unanswered second-half touchdowns and allowed the Warhawks - ranked No. 4 nationally - to rush for 280 yards. On Saturday, the Royals managed just 89 yards on the ground (with only one run of longer than 10 yards) and only 233 yards of total offense.

"The difference was just the mental preparation and the realization that you have to play defense with all-out effort every play," SJU head coach Gary Fasching '81 said. "I didn't think we did that against Whitewater. But we did today."

Indeed, the SJU defense got together the Sunday morning after the loss to the Warhawks to regroup heading into the team's bye week last weekend. 

Sophomore safety Noah Arneson (Independence, Minn./Orono) said that meeting helped set an important tone.

"Having the bye week was a big help for us," said Arneson, who had six tackles Saturday. "We really came together as a unit. We had so much energy in practice this week. We couldn't wait to get back on the field."



Bethel (1-2, 0-1 MIAC) took a 7-0 lead on a 1-yard run by quarterback Alex Call in the second quarter. But that score was set up when linebacker Isaac Call returned an interception to the SJU 37.

After that, the Royals didn't score again. Bethel turned the ball over on downs three times in Johnnies' territory, including at the SJU 33 on the drive following Call's touchdown run, and at the Johnnies' 14 trailing 20-7 in the fourth quarter.

"The defense came out with a different motor today," Yaggie said. "That was important."

The SJU offense, meanwhile, started a bit sluggish, but picked up the pace as the game went along. Senior quarterback Aaron Syverson (Minnetonka, Minn.) connected with sophomore Dylan Wheeler (St. Paul, Minn./Mounds View) for a 28-yard touchdown pass on 4th-and-12 to tie the score 7-7 with 3:40 to go in the second quarter, then a 33-yard field goal by junior Conor Murphy (Sioux Falls, S.D./O'Gorman) put the Johnnies on top 10-7 at halftime.

Murphy connected on a 35-yard field goal in the third quarter to extend the lead to 13-7 before a short pass from Syverson to senior wideout Nick VanErp (Battle Lake, Minn./Ottertail Central) - who was returning to action after sitting out the Whitewater game with a groin injury - turned into a 74-yard touchdown connection to make the score 20-7. VanErp finished with five catches for 83 yards.

"We just started executing our stuff," said Syverson, who threw for 266 yards and three touchdowns. "We were shooting ourselves in the foot too much early on. Mainly me. I have to do a better job of hitting our guys and executing the plays that are called."



Syverson and the offense capitalized in a big way after the defense stopped the Royals on downs at the 14. A 77-yard run by senior running back Devin Vouk (Sartell, Minn./Sartell-St. Stephen) set up an 8-yard touchdown pass from Syverson to senior tight end Alex Larson (Woodbury, Minn./East Ridge) that put the game out of reach.

"Ultimately the defense kept us in it today," Syverson said. "They played great. They really won us this game."

And Yaggie said that performance provided a much-needed confidence boost.

"This was huge for us," he said. "Hopefully from here, we just keep getting better. We have seven weeks left in the regular season now. Our goal is to keep improving with every passing week."

Third-Down Difficulty
Both teams struggled on third down Saturday. Bethel finished just 2-for-14 on third-down conversions (and 1-for-4 on fourth down), while SJU finished 4-for-16. The opposition went 17-for-24 on third down against SJU in the season's first two games.

Big Plays
VanErp's 74-yard reception was SJU's longest since Nov. 2, 2019, when Ravi Alston '21 hauled in a 79-yard catch from Jackson Erdmann '19 at home against Concordia (a 19-18 loss in overtime). Vouk's 77-yard run was the Johnnies' longest since Henry Trost '22 scored on an 80-yard run in a 57-7 home victory over St. Olaf on Oct. 20, 2018. 

Another MIAC-Opening Win
The Johnnies are now 69-25-7 (.718) all-time in their first MIAC game of the season, including a 34-10-4 (.750) record in Collegeville and a 6-1 record against Bethel (4-0 in Collegeville and 2-1 on the road). It took SJU until its 11th season in the MIAC to win its first conference game of the season, a 7-0 home shutout of Hamline on Oct. 3, 1931. SJU was 0-6-4 in its first 10 conference openers and is 69-19-3 (.775) since.

Picking The Royals
Yaggie posted 11 tackles and two interceptions, including one he returned 61 yards for a touchdown, in the teams' previous meeting, a 28-10 win last November for the MIAC championship. He led SJU with 12 tackles and an interception Saturday.

Tied With Tom
Syverson finished 18 of 34 passing for 266 yards and three touchdowns in today's victory. The 18 completions enabled him to tie Tom Linnemann '00 for fifth all-time. Syverson is currently sixth in both passing yards (5,878) and passing touchdowns (62), and seventh in pass attempts (701).

Larson Leaping Up the Charts
Larson had a game-high five receptions for 43-yards and a touchdown in the win. The touchdown reception tied him with Todd Fultz '90 for ninth in SJU history (24) and the five catches allowed him to pass Dan Grant '88 for the most receptions by a Johnnie tight end (117). The 43 yards also allowed Larson to pass Grant and move into third place for a tight end (1,451).

BU in Collegeville
SJU is now 36-10 against Bethel, including a 21-3 record in Collegeville. The Johnnies have out-scored the Royals 157-63 over the last six meetings in Clemens Stadium, all SJU wins.

Next Week
The Johnnies travel to face Augsburg (3-0, 1-0 MIAC) for a 1 p.m. kickoff next Saturday, Sept. 30, in Minneapolis. The Auggies avoided its first loss of the season today by connecting on a 34-yard Hail Mary with one second remaining to escape St. Peter with a 33-31 win at Gustavus Adolphus.