Game Leaders
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Passing Yards
Rushing Yards
Turnovers
Time of Poss.
COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – Running back Jordan Roberts ran for four touchdowns and 230 yards to lead St. Thomas to a 35-14 win over St. John's before a crowd of 17,327 on Saturday, the largest recorded crowd for a Division III football game.
The junior transfer from Sheridan, Wyoming, sparked an offense that scored 21 straight points in the third and early fourth quarters to jump to a 28-7 lead. St. John's scored once to trim the St. Thomas lead to 14 but the No. 12-ranked Tommies held on to break a two-game losing streak to the No. 8 Johnnies.
It marked the fourth year in a row that the visiting team had won in the series. UST coach Glenn Caruso improved to 3-1 in Collegeville in four tries to mirror a 1-3 home record against SJU.
St. Thomas had four sacks and had three takeaways while holding the Johnnies under 300 total yards.
SJU All-America RB Sam Sura, who rushed for 299 yards combined his the last two games against St. Thomas, was limited to 74 net yards on 25 rushes. He was injured in a playoff loss to Wartburg last November and had only three carries before leaving. If you take out that game, Sura had rushed for 90 or more yards in 14 consecutive games before Saturday.
After a 7-7 first half, St. Thomas took control of the game in the third quarter with two touchdowns on very different drives.
A 80-yard drive – the Tommies' second of the day – featured Roberts carrying six times for 49 yards and his second rushing touchdown. The 12-yard run put him over 100 yards on the ground for the day and capped a 12-play, 5:30 drive.
The Tommie defense set up the next touchdown less than three minutes later. Isaac Seering picked off a Nick Martin pass near midfield and returned it to the St. John's 21. Two plays later, Roberts picked up his third rushing touchdown, from 15 yards, and the Tommies led 21-7.
The defense forced a 3-and-out punt on the Johnnies' next possession, and St. Thomas needed just seven plays to boost its lead to 28-7. Halfback Jack Keiser ran in from the 5; all seven plays on the 43-yard drive came on the ground.
St. John's quickly rebounded with a drive to cut the St. Thomas lead to 28-14 with 12:27. But the Tommie defense held, and Roberts capped off the scoring with a 43-yard run with 2:14 left to put him over the 200-yard mark.
Neither team could move the ball with consistency on its first two possessions of the game, but St. Thomas scored early in the second quarter after a 16-play, 80-yard drive. Roberts ran the ball in from the St. John's 5 on fourth and 1, the Tommies' second fourth-down conversion in the 6:33 drive. Paul Graupner's extra point kick gave St. Thomas a 7-0 lead with 11:20 to go.
Two more unsuccessful St. John's drives left St. Thomas with the ball on its 20, but quarterback John Gould threw an interception in the right flat on the first play. The Johnnies needed just five plays to score from the Tommies' 29, with Sura plunging in from the 1.
Roberts carried 13 times for 58 yards in the half plus had 10 yards on two receptions, and the Tommies had 159 yards of offense to St. John's 115.