Box Score
COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – His team entered Saturday ranked first in the MIAC and seventh nationally in total defense.
But Saint John's senior All-American linebacker
Aiden McMahon (Maple Grove, Minn.) still saw room for improvement.
"The last couple weeks, it's felt like we've played a good quarter or a good half, then maybe not as good the rest of the way," he said. "Coming into today, our goal was to put together four quarters of dominant defense. That was our motto all week."
McMahon helped put that motto into practice, recording a team-best 10 tackles (nine solo) as the Johnnies topped Gustavus Adolphus 27-3 before a crowd of 7,853 on a grey and gloomy Halloween afternoon at Clemens Stadium.
The Johnnies (8-0, 7-0 MIAC) - ranked No. 3 in both national polls - held Gustavus (5-3, 4-3 MIAC) to just 245 yards of total offense, only 31 of that total coming on the ground.
The Gusties' lone score came after they picked off a pass in their own end one on the game's opening possession, then marched 61 yards in 10 plays to take a 3-0 lead on a 37-yard field goal from Jack Sieben that put them in front 3-0 early.
After that, though, the Gustavus offense was kept largely bottled up. The Gusties finished just 5-for-16 on third-down conversions and were 1-for-4 on fourth down.
"We didn't change much schematically after that first drive," McMahon said. "We just started executing better. We knew what they were going to try to get after based on what they did to start. We made a couple of adjustments and it felt like we were able to dominate from there."
That was important because, on this Halloween, the Johnnie offense was a mixed bag of tricks and treats. SJU - which entered play ranked first in the conference and second nationally in points-per-game - jumped in front 7-3 on a 9-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback
Trey Feeney (Moorhead, Minn.) to classmate
Riley Schwellenbach (Woodbury, Minn./East Ridge) on the drive following Sieben's field goal.
A 3-yard touchdown catch by sophomore running back
Sedric Melvin Jr. (Homestead, Fla./South Dade) and a 35-yard field goal by senior kicker/punter
Matt Hansen (Longmont, Colo./Niwot) extended the margin to 17-3 at the half.
But, in addition to the interception in the end zone after reaching the Gustavus 6-yard line on the game's opening possession, SJU also missed a 38-yard field goal and couldn't convert on 4th-and-goal at the Gusties' 1 in the closing seconds of the first half.
"At halftime, I said we left 17 points on the field," SJU coach
Gary Fasching said. "A missed field goal and two drives where we should have scored.
"But on a day when maybe our offense wasn't as sharp as they've been in the past, we needed the defense to step up and they did," he continued. "Sometimes that happens where one area isn't firing on all cylinders, but another area is there to help carry the load. I think we saw that today."
The offense, though, did convert on its first possession of the second half, going 60 yards in 12 plays to score when Feeney and Schwellenbach again connected, this time on an 11-yard touchdown pass.
Schwellenbach finished the day with 10 catches for 164 yards and two touchdowns.
"Riley's tough as nails," said Feeney, who entered play ranked first in Division III in both passing yards and touchdown passes. "He may not be big in stature, but he's got a big heart and he's willing to get hit. He knows how to make plays."
Feeney finished the afternoon 36 of 47 passing for 401 yards and three touchdowns with two interceptions. Senior tight end
Charlie Plum (Inver Grove Heights, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall) added seven catches for a career-high 102 yards. Senior wide receiver
Thomas Jacobs (Lakeland, Minn./Stillwater Area) had seven catches for 91 yards.
"We didn't do a great job converting in the red zone today and we have to learn from that," Feeney said. "Our defense played really well, but offensively, there is definitely a lot we need to improve on."
That defense is now allowing the opposition an average of just under 38.4 yards-per-game on the ground. On Saturday, it held Gustavus to (-4) yards rushing in the first half on a day when the Gusties' offense only attempted to run 12 times in all.
"Our defensive line is a difference maker," said junior safety
Mark Rogalski (Eden Prairie, Minn./St. Thomas Academy), who finished with four tackles and had one of his team's two interceptions. "Those guys are shutting things down and that helps a lot."
Now the Johnnies look ahead to the final two weeks of the regular season where they will attempt to lock up the MIAC title (and the automatic NCAA Division III playoff bid that comes with it).
SJU travels to Duluth to face St. Scholastica (1-7, 1-6 MIAC) at noon next Saturday (Nov. 7). The Saints picked up their first win of the season Saturday, downing Hamline 48-14 in St. Paul.
The Johnnies then close the regular season with a matchup against St. Olaf (3-5, 3-4 MIAC) at 6 p.m. on Nov. 14 at TCO Stadium in Eagan.
"This was a big win for us today," McMahon said. "Gustavus is a good team. They're always coached well and they always put up a tough fight. We knew this one wasn't going to be easy. But we came out on top.
"Now we're moving on and focused on taking care of business the next two weeks."
#4 Production
Schwellenbach now has 31 receptions for 535 yards and four touchdowns over his last three games. His 10 catches Saturday lifted him past Jeremy Loretz '95 for 12th in program history with 139, while the 164 yards vaulted him above former teammates
Alex Larson '23 and
Joey Gendreau '26 for 12th with 2,210.
Trey Stats
Saturday's performance enabled Feeney to pass Ryan Keating '03 for fourth in program history with 567 pass completions and break his tie with Alex Kofoed '07 for sole possession of third with 11 300-yard passing games. Feeney now has 286 completions through eight games this fall, which is five more than he had in 2025's 12 games.
Not So Golden in Collegeville
The Halloween win was SJU's 30th (30-11-1 record) against Gustavus in Collegeville and the 56th overall (56-33-3 record). The Johnnies have now outscored the Gusties 61-3 over the last two matchups in Clemens Stadium and are 36-3 in the last 39 meetings overall.
27-3 for a Second Time
Unfortunately, SJU's 27-3 score was not a scorigami as the exact score has happened one other time in program history: a 27-3 win over Hamline on Sept. 27, 1980 in Collegeville. That game also featured a 3-0 deficit that SJU answered with 27 consecutive points. The path to 27-3 score in 1980 was a HAM FG, SJU TD+PAT, SJU TD+PAT, SJU TD+PAT, SJU FG and SJU FG.
