Box Score

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – Through the early portion of preseason practice, Saint John's head coach Gary Fasching '81 felt like his offense hadn't really found its groove. 

In recent days, though, the rhythm started to come. And in their season opener Saturday afternoon, the Johnnies hit all the right notes.

SJU - ranked No. 14 in the nation in the Division III preseason polls for both the American Football Coaches' Association (AFCA) and D3football.com - rolled to six first-half touchdowns and piled up 548 yards of total offense en route to a 49-0 non-conference win over Carthage (Wis.) before a crowd of 8,679 in a sunny and pleasant Clemens Stadium.

"I thought our defense was ahead of our offense through most of camp," said Fasching, who picked up his 100th victory as the Johnnies' head coach (100-19 career record).  "But in the last week, it seemed like the offense started to get its feet under them. They've looked pretty good in practice lately and they carried it into the game today."



Senior quarterback Aaron Syverson (Minnetonka, Minn.) finished 20 of 25 passing for 282 yards and four touchdowns before he and his fellow starters exited the game early in the third quarter. Nine of those passes went to junior wide receiver Dylan Wheeler (St. Paul, Minn./Mounds View), who finished with 139 receiving yards - including touchdown catches of 5, 36 and 16 yards as his team built a 42-0 halftime lead. He had eight receptions for 128 yards and the three scores in the first half alone.

"Nerves, excitement, adrenaline," Wheeler said. "When it's the first game, it's a combination of everything. But we tried to block out all the little things so we could just focus on playing football and executing our offense.

"We did that and we were able to make it work."

The Johnnies' defense was pretty good as well, limiting the Firebirds to 50 yards of total offense and four first downs in the first half. Carthage had just six yards rushing in the first two quarters and finished with only 61 on the afternoon. SJU also intercepted three passes on the afternoon, including two in the red zone, and the Firebirds went 0-for-7 on third down.

"Especially coming off the year we had last season (when the Johnnies missed the Division III playoffs for the first time since 2013), we needed this defensively," senior linebacker Hayden Sanders (Brooklyn Park, Minn./Champlin Park) said. "We wanted to come out and set the tone right away. Anytime you can hold the other team to zero and put a cap in their end zone, it's going to set you up pretty well."

The Johnnies also rushed for 210 yards (221 before the final three kneel-downs to end the game), including a 2-yard touchdown by sophomore Jaxon Sawyer (San Jose, Calif./Bellarmine College Prep) in the first quarter, a 1-yard touchdown run by senior Quinn Christoffersen (South St. Paul, Minn.) in the second and a 28-yard scoring scamper by Syverson to close out the scoring early in the third. Sophomore Will Blakey (St. Paul, Minn./Central) led the way with 55 yards on just seven carries.



"We wanted to set the tone right away and our guys did that," Fasching said. "When your offense scores right away and you get some big defensive stops, that helps out tremendously."

But things get more challenging next week when the Johnnies play host to Wartburg (Iowa) in a game scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday (Sept. 14) at Clemens Stadium. The Knights advanced to the Division III semifinals a year ago and were ranked No. 4 in the preseason polls.

"We can look back on this one as a great tune-up game and figure out ways we can improve," Wheeler said. "We have to get in the office and watch as much Wartburg film as we can, prepare and put together a great game plan.

"Then (we have to) do our best to keep up the intensity in practice and come out focused and ready to play next week."

100 Touchdown Passes
The four touchdown passes enabled Syverson to become the third quarterback in MIAC history to reach 100 for a career (in all games). The conference's top three also matches SJU's record book: Jackson Erdmann '19 (139 from 2016-19), Alex Kofoed (100 from 2004-07) and Syverson (100 from 2021-current).

Three Touchdown Receptions
The three-touchdown game was the second of Wheeler's career – 14 catches for 205 yards and three scores in last fall's (Oct. 14) 63-7 home win over Carleton was the first – and the first for a Johnnie in a half since 2018. Will Gillach '19 caught three touchdown passes in the first half of his eventual four-score game, nine catches for 167 yards total, in the 63-23 home win over Thomas More (Ky.) on Nov. 10 of that year. Wheeler has 63 receptions for 887 yards and 11 touchdowns over his last 10 games.

Season-Opening Success
SJU is now 82-28-3 (.739) all-time in season openers, including an 11-0 record under Fasching. The Johnnies have now won each of their last 19 season openers, 20 of their last 21, and 36 of their last 40 since 1984. 

Shutout
Saturday's shutout is the 190th in program history, the 21st in 119 games under Fasching and the 33rd for SJU in its season opener.