Johnnie wide receiver Joey Eckhoff comes down with a pass in the 87th TOJO matchup. Eckhoff was one of six St. John’s receivers to catch at least one pass against St. Thomas. (Jacob Schneider/TommieMedia)
Johnnie halfback Kai Barber is tackled while crossing the goal line. Barber tallied 51 yards and a score on 14 carries. (Noah Brown/TommieMedia)
Tommie wide receiver Joe Hird drops a pass on the sideline against the Johnnies. Quarterback Jacques Perra threw a career-high 53 passes, but he only completed 25. (Noah Brown/TommieMedia)
Defensive back Logan Petersmeyer breaks up a pass in the end zone. The St. Thomas secondary was torched for 470 yards and three touchdowns against the Johnnies. (Noah Brown/TommieMedia)
Tommie halfback Josh Parks sheds a tackle in the end zone on fourth down. Parks scored three times and was the only Tommie to find the end zone Saturday against St. John’s. (Noah Brown/TommieMedia)
Johnnie wide receiver Will Gillach hauls in a pass in the end zone for a touchdown. Gillach pulled in 14 receptions for 256 yards and two touchdowns against the Tommies. (Noah Brown/TommieMedia)
Halfback Josh Parks shakes a defender en route to his second touchdown of the day. Parks tallied 256 yards and three touchdowns on 22 carries against St. John’s. (Noah Brown/TommieMedia)
Halfback Josh Parks bobbles a check down pass from Jacques Perra. Including this pass, Perra threw five interceptions throughout the game. (Noah Brown/TommieMedia)
Johnnie wide receiver Will Gillach evades two Tommie defenders on his way to the end zone. Gillach was one of six Johnnies to find the end zone Saturday. (Jacob Schneider/TommieMedia)
Wide receiver Gabe Green hauls in a pass over a St. John’s defender. Green was limited to 33 yards on three receptions. (Jacob Schneider/TommieMedia)
Linebacker Matt Mitchell bats down a pass at the line of scrimmage. The St. Thomas defense was cut up for 40 points against the Johnnies, the most the unit has given up since 2015 against Mount Union in the Stagg Bowl. (Jacob Schneider/TommieMedia)
Johnnie quarterback Jackson Erdmann steps up to throw. Erdmann led an offense that gained 539 total yards and scored five times against the Tommies. (Jacob Schneider/TommieMedia)
COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – What was anticipated to be a close football game slowly faded into a blowout. For the first time this season, though, it wasn’t the Tommies on the winning side.
No. 9 St. John’s (5-0 MIAC, 6-0 overall) ran away with a 40-20 victory over St. Thomas (3-1 MIAC, 5-1 overall), handing the Tommies their first conference loss since Oct. 25, 2014.
“I thought nothing was perfect,” St. Thomas coach Glenn Caruso said. “I thought our (players) did a really good job of staying in the game … I felt like all the way into the fourth quarter, we were fighting back from the tremendously deep hole that we put ourselves in.”
Halfback Josh Parks struck first with a 94-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. The 7-0 advantage was the largest lead the Tommies held throughout the game. Parks carried the St. Thomas with 256 yards on 22 attempts, scoring three touchdowns in the process. He was the only Tommie player to find the end zone throughout the game.
In the fourth quarter, the Tommies faced a 33-20 deficit but were pressing inside the St. John’s redzone. Parks took a handoff, and St. Thomas’ last hopes, to the strong side. Instead of punching it in and trimming the deficit to one possession, he fumbled. Johnnie defensive lineman Max Jackson returned it for a 99-yard touchdown, sealing the Tommies’ fate.
“Obviously we played a very good St. John’s team,” Parks said. “But there was too many mistakes, especially made by me. If you do good things and you follow that by doing bad things, it doesn’t really matter what you did before.”
Despite passing for 339 yards on 53 attempts, quarterback Jacques Perra threw five interceptions and was sacked three times for a loss of 20 yards. Perra never managed to have a touchdown connection.
“It was tough,” Perra said. “There were a couple that were out of my control and a couple bad decisions, bad (throws). It happens.”
Even though it recorded two interceptions and two fumbles, the Tommie defense allowed Johnnie quarterback Jackson Erdmann 470 yards through the air on 53 attempts for three touchdowns. The defense allowed the most points it has since the 2015 Stagg Bowl, when Mount Union scored 49 points.
“That’s a really good football team,” Caruso said. “Everybody wants to keep bringing it back to the rivalry, which is great, but I keep going back to it’s two really really good football teams that you prepare for, not just a rivalry.”
Besides feeding off of the energy from the home crowd, the Johnnies had a mission to get the win in tribute to the winningest coach in all of college football, John Gagliardi. The former Johnnie coach died last Saturday. He was 91 years old.
“Over 60 years here coach spent giving his life and families time and his wife’s time to this school,” Caruso said. “I’m sure there were many people here to honor him… regardless of who won, it was a great honor of a man who put a lot into Division III football.”
Following the loss, the Tommies will look to bounce back at home Saturday against Carleton.
“Right now, we have to find out whether or not we can take a tough situation and learn from it,” Caruso said. “That’s what being mentally tough is.”
Matthew Curry can be reached at curr1523@stthomas.edu