Box Score
COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – Senior linebacker
Aiden McMahon (Maple Grove, Minn.) and his teammates on the Saint John's football team hadn't been truly tested since the season opener, winning their last four matchups by an average of almost 44 points per game entering play against fellow unbeaten Concordia Saturday afternoon.
The Cobbers, though, weren't about to go down so easily. And after a first half when not much went right, the question became how the Johnnies would respond.
"It's not always about beating every team by a huge margin," said McMahon. "That's not always possible. The key is what you do when adversity strikes. We're going to play some good teams if we get to where we want to go. What are we going to do when we're behind? Are we going to curl up in a ball or are we going to toughen up and play Johnnie football?
"I think we got that answer today."
Indeed, after a first half when the Cobbers scored three touchdowns to take a seven-point halftime lead (20-13), the Johnnie defense shut the door - holding Concordia to three points the rest of the way en route to a 33-23 SJU victory before a huge homecoming crowd of 14,033 at a chilly, but sun-soaked Clemens Stadium.
The key stat? Concordia went 5-for-8 on third down in the first half, and wide receiver Jed Klang caught a 29-yard touchdown pass on 4th-and-six that put the Cobbers up 20-10 with 35 seconds to go before halftime.
But Concordia went 0-for-7 on third down the rest of the way, punting the ball on its first four second-half possessions, then turning it over on downs and throwing a pair of interceptions on its final three.
In between, a 37-yard field goal from Mitchell Druley provided the Cobbers' only post-halftime points.
"Schematically we changed up the coverage a little bit, just showing different looks, and I think that helped a lot," said junior safety
Will Peroutka (Rosemount, Minn.), whose interception with 3:17 to play closed the door on Concordia's comeback hopes. "It made their quarterback have to think a little more.
"We don't want to play the way we did in the first half, but I think it was good for us as a defense to face some adversity. A game like this will really help us going forward. Our guys handled it well. We came together. We leaned on one another and we responded when we needed to."
The Johnnies - ranked No. 2 in both national polls - improved to 5-0 in MIAC play and 6-0 overall. The Cobbers - who entered play averaging 44.6 points per game and allowing an average of just 4.4 - fell to 4-1 in the conference and 5-1 overall.
"We made a lot of mistakes in the first half," SJU coach
Gary Fasching said. "We had some coverage mistakes and some penalties that cost us. A lot of stuff that was self-induced. But give them credit too. They found a couple things that were working for them. That No. 7, Klang (who finished with eight catches for 123 yards and two touchdowns), is really a good receiver. I said before the game that he was probably the best receiver we're going to face. They threw a lot of fades to him and got him the ball in a lot of different ways.
"But I didn't think our coverage was very tight. And at halftime, (defensive coordinator James) Herberg and the defensive staff got together and made some adjustments that made a big difference."
A difference needed on an up-and-down afternoon for the Johnnie offense.
SJU took a 10-7 lead when senior running back
Corey Bohmert (Mahtomedi, Minn.) scored from 1-yard out on a direct snap late in the first quarter. But linebacker Kyle Mages picked off a pass early in the second and returned it 38 yards, setting up a 2-yard touchdown run from quarterback Nick Walter that put Concordia back in front 14-10.
Klang's fourth-down touchdown expanded the margin to 10 before a 27-yard field goal by senior
Matt Hansen (Longmont, Colo./Niwot) as time expired cut the gap to 20-13 at halftime.
Things picked up in the third quarter when SJU marched 99 yards in 10 plays to score on a 19-yard pass from senior quarterback
Trey Feeney (Moorhead, Minn.) to classmate
Thomas Jacobs (Lakeland, Minn./Stillwater Area). But the extra-point attempt failed and a fumble recovery by Mages at the Johnnie 35-yard-line set up Druley's field goal, putting Concordia in front 23-19 with 9:23 remaining.
That, then, set the stage for the play of the afternoon. It came on the first play of SJU's next possession when Feeney threw deep to senior wideout
Riley Schwellenbach (Woodbury, Minn./East Ridge), connecting on a 69-yard scoring strike that put the Johnnies back on top 26-23.
Schwellenbach finished with 15 catches for 245 yards, the second-highest single-game total in program history.
The call, meanwhile, was a reprise of one that almost clicked earlier.
"Trey and I almost connected on it," said Schwellenbach. "I laid out and probably should have made the catch. We knew we'd want to come back to it in a big moment later. And there was no bigger moment than on that drive."
From there, the defense took over, forcing Concordia to turn the ball over on downs on its next possession. Then, after a 50-yard punt by Hansen pinned the Cobbers at their own 15, Peroutka came up with his interception, and a 1-yard touchdown run by Bohmert with under a minute left put the game away.
"That was a route they ran to pick up a first down earlier and they came back to it," Peroutka said of his pick. "It just so happened I was ready. The ball came my way and I knew I had to make the play for my guys."
McMahon finished with 13 tackles to lead the Johnnie defense, which recorded three sacks and seven tackles for loss. Senior linebacker
Andrew Molenaar (Shoreview, Minn./Mounds View) added 10 tackles and junior defensive end
Charlie King (Faribault, Minn./Bethlehem Academy) had nine.
"We started playing our brand of football in the second half," said McMahon, whose team travels to Northfield to face Carleton at 1 p.m. next Saturday (Oct. 24). "We got our swagger back. We stopped the run and got them into some third-and-longs. Then our pass rush started getting after them. Give credit to our secondary for a great second half and credit to the whole defense for sticking with it when adversity hit.
"We trusted our scheme, trusted our coaches and got out there and started making stops."
Hansen hit field goals of 39 and 27 yards in the first half. But he missed an extra-point attempt in the third quarter, then couldn't connect on a 35-yard field goal attempt early in the fourth.
That prompted a pep talk from Fasching on the sideline.
"I just told him you have to forget about the ones you miss," said Fasching of Hansen, who had a streak of 107-straight extra points snapped when one was blocked during a 62-6 win at Macalester last week.
"You can't do anything about those. But we were going to need him the rest of the way."
Hansen responded by nailing his final two PAT attempts and delivering the big punt of 50 yards that pinned Concordia deep in its own territory late in the fourth quarter.
"He told me to keep my head up," Hansen said. "That helped a lot. It gave me some confidence back."
15 Catches & 245 Receiving Yards
Schwellenbach's aforementioned 15 receptions for 245 receiving yards were both second-best in SJU history. Will Gillach '19 caught 14 passes for a school-record 256 yards and two touchdowns in the Johnnies' 40-20 win over St. Thomas on this week – Oct. 13, 2018 – in Collegeville. The 15 catches tied him with Blake Elliott '03 – twice – on Dec. 14, 2002 at Trinity (Texas) in the NCAA semifinals and Nov. 8, 2003 vs. Bethel. The record – 18 receptions – was set by Adam Herbst '99 against St. Thomas on Nov. 7, 1997, at the Metrodome.
Feeney Fun
The 51 pass attempts tied Feeney for seventh-most in an SJU game, while the 35 pass completions tied him for sixth. The 473 passing yards were 10 behind his total from last Saturday's (Oct. 10) 62-6 win at Macalester and enabled him to break his tie with Kurt Ramler '97 for sole possession of fourth-most in program history with nine 300-yard passing games. The two passing touchdowns lifted Feeney's career total to 68, which moved him into a tie with Ryan Keating '03 for sixth on SJU's all-time list.
SJU vs. No. 1 in the Stats
Concordia entered Saturday's game leading all of NCAA Division III in scoring defense (4.4 ppg.), pass-efficiency defense (73.01) and total defense (171.4 ypg.), was third in rushing defense (41.4 ypg.) and ninth in sacks (3.80 spg.). SJU, meanwhile, put up 33 points, a pass-efficiency rating of 155.55, 532 yards of offensive, 59 rushing yards and did not allow a sack.
Homecoming Win
SJU is now 75-20-2 (.784) in 97 known Homecoming games dating back to 1925, including a 8-3-1 record against Concordia. The Johnnies have won 35 of their last 40 Homecoming games.
Scorigami!
Today's 33-23 was a Scorigami - the first score of its kind in Saint John's football history. SJU has played in 25 games where 33 has been the winning score with an 18-7 record. The most recent game in which SJU scored 33 points was a 33-21 victory over Gustavus Adolphus on Sept. 21, 2019. SJU's path to 33 was TD+PAT, TD+PAT, TD+PAT, TD and TD. That game featured a blocked PAT and a failed two-point conversion.
What a Crowd
Today's announced attendance of 14,033 was the sixth-largest home crowd in school history and the largest non-St. Thomas game crowd on record.
