St. Olaf’s Ben Smithson scores on one of the three touchdown passes he caught from quarterback Ricardo Johnson III in a 33-21 victory over Carleton. (athletics.stolaf.edu)
MIAC standings
| St. Olaf | 1-0 | 3-0 |
| St. Thomas | 1-0 | 2-0 |
| St. John’s | 1-0 | 2-0 |
| Concordia | 1-0 | 2-1 |
| Bethel | 0-0 | 2-0 |
| Augsburg | 0-1 | 2-1 |
| Carleton | 0-1 | 1-2 |
| Gustavus | 0-1 | 1-2 |
| Hamline | 0-1 | 0-3 |
MIAC SCOREBOARD
Saturday
- St. Thomas 62, Hamline 0
- Concordia 54, Augsburg 7
- St. Olaf 33, Carleton 21
- St. John’s 45, Gustavus 13
Saturday, Sept. 22
- Augsburg at St. Olaf, 1 p.m.
- Hamline at Concordia, 1 p.m.
- Gustavus Bethel, 1 p.m.
- Carleton at St. John’s, 1 p.m.
- Wis.-Eau Claire at St. Thomas, 1:10 p.m.
St. Olaf quarterback Ricardo Johnson III passed for three touchdowns and ran for two more to lead the Oles to their third straight victory, 33-21 over Northfield rival Carleton at the Knights’ Laird Stadium.
Johnson also took part in five touchdowns last week. St. Olaf (3-0, 1-0 MIAC) beat Carleton (1-2, 0-1) for the fifth time in a row. The Oles have defeated the Knights in 19 of the last 22 games.
Johnson completed 18 of 34 passes for 191 yards and three touchdowns with one interception. He ran 24 times for 116 yards. All three s passing touchdowns went to Ben Smithson, the only three balls he caught in the game.
Khayleb Willis added 79 rushing yards on 11 carries. The Oles gained 247 yards on the ground, the most for St. Olaf since the 2011 team ran for 295 yards against Hamline.
Carleton came into the game ranked second in Division III in passing at 395.5 yards a game; the Oles held the Knights to 216 yards passing and intercepted Christian Zaytoun four times.
Concordia 54, Augsburg 7
Rylie Sheridan and Dane Ringquist combined for 262 yards rushing on only 14 carries with two touchdowns each as Concordia (2-1, 1-0) used a dominating running game to crush Augsburg (2-1, 0-1) at Minneapolis.
Sheridan gained 134 yards on seven attempts, a 19.1-yard average, while Ringquist gained 128 yards and averaged 18.3 yards on seven tries.
Ringquist’s second touchdown of the game went for 72 yards with 10:28 to play in the second quarter. It gave the Cobbers a 28-0 lead.
All told, Concordia gained 433 yards on the ground while Cobber quarterbacks passed only eight times.
St. John’s 45, Gustavus 13
Quarterback Jackson Erdmann threw three touchdown passes to lead St. John’s (2-0, 1-0) in a game moved under the lights at St. Joseph High School to avoid the hottest part of the day.
Erdmann opened the scoring at 7:51 of the first quarter with a 30-yard strike to Jared Streit, but quarterback Michael Veldman answered for Gustavus (0-2, 0-1) at the 4:10 mark with the first of his two TD passes, a 5-yarder to Zach Barwick.
With 13:03 to play in the second quarter, Erdmann hit Tommy Auger from 18 yards out to give the Johnnies a 17-6 lead. Veldman cut that to 17-13 with a 15-yard scoring pass to Brayton Finch.
But at 2:24 before the half, Erdmann struck again, this time a 42-yard scoring pass to Joey Eckoff. Kenneth Udoibok ran for two St. John’s touchdowns in the second half, and Ryan LaCasse returned a blocked field goal try 92 yards as St. John’s dominated after intermission.
Erdmann completed 12 of 19 passes for 220 yards. Veldman was 19 of 34 for 255 yards with an interception.