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De Pere, WI — The Tommie football team throttled the St. Norbert Green Knights 40-7 Saturday in the Green Knights’ new field, Donald J. Schneider Stadium.
“We’re going to enjoy this one tonight, but we have to get working tomorrow,” Coach Glenn Caruso said. “There’s a lot that we can clean up.”
Senior running back Ben Wartman led the Tommie offense with 136 yards and two touchdowns. Junior quarterback Dakota Tracy also had a big game, rushing for two touchdowns and contributing 160 yards of total offense.
The Tommies scored on its first offensive possession, a 92-yard drive topped off by a one-yard touchdown run from Tracy. Sophomore kicker Tim Albright missed the extra point.
Roughly five minutes later, after a 43-yard punt return from junior kick returner Fritz Waldvogel, Wartman punched in a 1-yard touchdown to give the Tommies a 13-0 lead.
On the ensuing St. Norbert possession, junior linebacker Willy Baregi blocked the Green Knights field goal attempt at the end of the first quarter, and it was recovered by junior linebacker Tony Danna with 12.6 seconds left.
Wartman threw an interception on a fourth-and-four play early in the second quarter, but the Green Knights gave it right back when senior defensive back Brady Ervin intercepted a pass from St. Norbert quarterback Rob Berger and returned it 29 yards for a touchdown, giving the Tommies a 20-0 lead with 8:39 left before halftime. Ervin intercepted Berger again with 13:24 left in the second quarter.
“Its always good to have a defense like we have, [it’s] the backbone of our team,” Tracy said. “When we need them to make plays, they make plays, and it puts the offense in a good situation.”
Tracy threw an interception with 2:58 left in the first half, and Berger led the team on an eight-play, 33-yard drive capped by a Berger seven-yard touchdown pass.
The Green Knights didn’t score the rest of the day.
“I feel real good with how the defense played,” Caruso said. “Of all three sides of the ball, that’s what I feel the most comfortable with.”
The fourth quarter played out like the first, with Tracy and Wartman leading the way. Tracy scored on an 8-yard rushing touchdown, followed by a 6-yard rushing touchdown from Wartman, bring the score to 37-7.
The Tommies gave up 196 offensive yards to the Green Knights. Senior linebacker Tommy Becker led the team with eight tackles. Baregi collected two sacks.
Albright put the nail in the coffin by kicking a booming 42-yard field goal with 4:08 left in the fourth quarter.
Junior quarterback Dakota Tracy said that even though the team scored forty points, the offense still has a long way to go.
“Forty points sounds like a lot, but as an offense I don’t think we’re anywhere near where we need to be or want to be,” Tracy said. “But you have to be a happy with a win, and we’ll take it any way we can get it.”
The Tommies will host the University of Wisconsin-River Falls at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 11 at Palmer Field.
Check out TommieMedia.com later for video coverage of the first Tommie football victory of the year.
Miles Trump can be reached at mttaylorjohn@stthomas.edu.