College football: That's 2 in a row - Johnnies top Tommies at St. Paul

ST. PAUL – Beating St. Thomas never gets old for Sam Sura.

Which is why the St. John's junior running back felt just as good after his team's 24-14 win over the Tommies on Saturday afternoon as he did when the Johnnies snapped a three-season losing streak against their archrivals with an upset victory a year ago.

"This is just awesome," said Sura, who rushed for 210 yards and a touchdown to lead St. John's to its second-straight victory in the rivalry before a stadium-record crowd of 12,483 at a warm and sunny O'Shaughnessy Stadium.

"To do it in front of all our fans who came down to the game, and to do it for all the seniors on our team, just feels amazing.

"Winning games like this is always exciting."

The Johnnies (1-1 MIAC, 3-1 overall) rebounded from a 23-14 loss to Concordia in the MIAC opener last week with their most balanced offensive performance of the year.

Updates from the St. John's at St. Thomas MIAC football game.

Sura helped chew up yards and keep drives alive on the ground. But junior quarterback Nick Martin — who dressed for, but sat out last week's loss to the Cobbers after suffering a concussion in a win at Wisconsin-Eau Claire on Sept. 13 — returned Saturday and finished 11 of 16 passing for 162 yards and two touchdowns.

The first — a 23-yard pass to junior Josh Bungum on the game's opening drive — came after the Tommies kept the possession going with a roughing-the-punter call on 4th-and-3 at the St. John's 32.

"That was huge," Martin said. "To take that opportunity they handed us and go down the field for a touchdown gave us a lot of confidence. It really made this a different game."

St. Thomas answered right back on its next series with a 3-yard touchdown run by junior Brenton Braddock that tied the score at 7.

SJU notebook: Perez makes mark against St. Thomas

But mistakes and missed opportunities haunted the Tommies on Saturday. On each of their final two drives of the first half, and on their first possession in the second, St. Thomas advanced to the St. John's 27 or deeper.

Each time the Tommies came away with no points.

A 38-yard field goal attempt by junior kicker Paul Graupner ended up being a 1-yard run by senior Dan Ferrazzo and Graupner missed a 44-yard attempt wide left in the final minute of the second quarter.

St. Thomas then turned the ball over on downs at the St. John's 21 on the first drive of the second half.

"Any time you have the ball and don't come away with points, it's tough," Tommies coach Glenn Caruso said. "But when you look at the depth of some of the drives we had, to come away without points was very deflating.

"That was tough to come back from."

Meanwhile, a 44-yard touchdown run by Sura down the St. Thomas sideline put the Johnnies on top 14-7 at halftime. And a 26-yard touchdown pass from Martin to sophomore Zack Sundly expanded the lead to 21-7 with 7:25 remaining in the third quarter.

"I've got to credit (offensive coordinator) Jim Gagliardi and (assistants) Kole Heckendorf, Jim Mader and Jake Essler," said St. John's coach Gary Fasching, whose head coaching record against the Tommies now stands at 2-0. "Those four put together a great game plan. They studied film like crazy. They knew what they wanted to do. And they didn't veer from it."

The St. Thomas offense did get moving when junior John Gould took over at quarterback in place of senior Matt O'Connell, who rushed for 41 yards, but was just 6 of 12 passing for 65 yards.

Gould — who finished 12 of 20 for 182 yards — led his team 71 yards in 11 plays to score on a 1-yard touchdown run by junior Jack Kaiser with 12 seconds left in the third quarter. That made the score 21-14 and seemed to shift momentum back to the Tommies.

But the St. John's defense did not panic.

"That's just the way we play," senior defensive tackle Ben Rossini said. "When something goes wrong, we figure out what happened, make our adjustments and go on from there. We gave up some yards today. But we made plays when we had to. We bent, but we didn't break."

Tommie turnovers

But St. Thomas did, turning the ball over four times (two fumbles, two interceptions) in the fourth quarter, bringing back echoes of last season's 20-18 SJU victory in which the Tommies had five turnovers.

"You can't have that many turnovers and expect things to work out well," Caruso said. "That happened to us last year and we had the chance to rectify it today, but we didn't."

St. John's got a 38-yard field goal from sophomore Alexi Johnson to go up by 10 with 5:57 to go, and after sophomore Garrett Ackerman picked off a pass in the end zone to end St. Thomas' final offensive possession, it was just a matter of seconds before a sea of red came pouring onto the field at O'Shaughnessy Stadium for the second straight year.

"These are just fun games to be a part of," said Sura, who has rushed for 752 yards and six touchdowns through the first four games. "It's great to be a part of the history this rivalry has. And I have friends who go here, so it's always fun to get bragging rights on them for another year, too. It was just a really good win for us as a team."

First quarter:

SJ — Josh Bungum 23 pass from Nick Martin (Alexi Johnson kick) 8:38

Drive: 13 plays, 75 yards, 6:30.

ST — Brenton Braddock 3 run (Paul Graupner kick) 5:11

Drive: 6 plays, 62 yards, 3:19.

Second quarter:

SJ — Sam Sura 44 run (Johnson kick) 12:39

Drive: 1 play, 44 yards, 9 seconds.

Third quarter:

SJ — Zack Sundly 26 pass from Martin (Johnson kick) 7:25

Drive: 6 plays, 79 yards, 3:05.

ST — Jack Kaiser 1 run (Graupner kick) :12

Drive: 11 plays, 71 yards, 3:55.

Fourth quarter:

SJ — Johnson 38 FG, 5:57

Drive: 6 plays, 21 yards, 3:07.

Individual leaders

Rushing: SJ — Sam Sura 36-210, Josh Bungum 1-4, Nick Martin 4-2, Antoine Taylor 1-1. Totals: FG 43-217; ST — Jack Kaiser 10-74, Nick Waldvogel 9-49, Matt O'Connell 8-41, John Gould 9-13, Brenton Braddock 4-12, Dan Ferrazzo 1-1; Totals: 42-193.

Passing: SJ — Martin 11-16-0 162; ST — Gould 12-20-2 182, Matt O'Connell 6-12-0 65; Totals: 18-32-2 247.

Receiving: SJ — Bungum 6-61, Zack Sundly 3-48, Evan Clark 1-38, J.T. Ford 1-15; Totals: 11-162; ST — Ryan Bradley 5-65, Dan Ferrazzo 4-71, Charlie Dowdle 3-42, Pete Fitzsimmon 2-33, Waldvogel 2-15, Austin Harrington 1-14, Dominic Truoccolo 1-7.

Leading tacklers (solo-assists): SJ — Andrew Norri 6-1 7, Carter Hanson 5-7 7, Randy Perez 4-3 7; ST — Tim McClanahan 4-9 13, Sam Pokornowski 7-5 12, Rutger Heffelfinger 4-6 10.

Interceptions: SJ — Perez 1, Garrett Ackerman 1; ST — none.

Sacks: SJ — Workman 3; ST — Mozus Ikuenobe 1, McClanahan 1.

Attendance: 12,483

....................................SJ............. ST

First downs ..................17............. 21

Rushes-yards........... 43-217...... 42-193

Passing yards.............. 162........... 247

Comp-att-int........... 11-16-0..... 18-32-2

Total offense yards..... 379........... 440

Fumbles-lost............... 0-0 ............2-2

Penalties-yards...........4-23.......... 9-80

Punts-avg. ................6-30.3 ......2-35.5

Time of possession... 29:54....... 30:06

Sacks-yards............... 3-12........... 2-13

St. John's: 1-1 MIAC, 3-1 overall. Next: vs. Hamline, 1 p.m. Saturday, at Collegeville.

St. Thomas: 0-1 MIAC, 2-1 overall. Next: at St. Olaf, 1:10 p.m. Saturday, at Northfield.