The University of Sioux Falls handed St. Thomas its first loss at O’Shaughnessy Stadium since 2016, 34-13 Thursday night.
The Tommies lost the longest active win streak at their home stadium in college football. No player on coach Glenn Caruso’s roster has experienced a loss at their home stadium.
“I think it’s one of the worst games I’ve seen us play in the 17 seasons, and as I told the guys, that’s who we are right now. The thing I love about football is that what you see on the field, that’s who you are,” Caruso said.
The game faced a two-hour delay due to thunderstorms in the Twin Cities, and the Tommies’ first win of the season was delayed to at least week 2. St. Thomas’ defense was on the field for over 40 minutes of game time, double their offense.
“Our defense was on the field way too many plays,” Caruso said. “It’s just a matter of time before all of a sudden, you have a guy go down.”
Multiple players had to step off the field with apparent injuries, including starting defensive linemen graduate CJ Warren and junior Noah Friedt in the same drive, leading to a Sioux Falls touchdown.
Senior running back Gabe Abel was held to just one yard up the middle on the Tommies’ first rush of the season. Abel and first team all-conference junior running back Hope Adebayo averaged 5.5 and 6.5 yards per carry respectively last season. The Tommies’ rushing attack was held to just 1.4 Thursday.
“If someone says, ‘What was it that felt different about the game?’ Our inability early to establish the run, because what flows off of the run is everything that we built this on,” Caruso said.
The entire offense only had 172 yards and eight first downs the entire game. The Cougar offense reset the chains 24 times, including converting on a fourth and 10 situation.
Sophomore quarterback Tak Tateoka went 5-13 before with 49 yards, including a 25-yard touchdown pass to graduate receiver Jacob Wildermuth on their second play of the game, the Tommies’ only offensive touchdown.
Tateoka was pulled for sophomore quarterback Michael Rostberg to start the third quarter. Rostberg ended 9-22 with 101 yards and an interception.
“I think we were probably a little late on the switch, just based off of not anything going in predicting that would happen, just how the game unfolded,” Caruso said. “I think Tak is a very good quarterback. I’m grateful and happy that even though he’s only a sophomore, he got six games of experience last year, and did a really good job. But Michael, we thought with what we need to do to win this game would put us in a better situation. Unfortunately, I can’t say he did put us in a better situation.”
Caruso found highlights in the team’s defense, especially in the first half. The Tommies picked off Sioux Falls junior quarterback Camden Dean on the third play of the game. St. Thomas also forced sophomore running back Christian Nash to fumble on the goal line before the ball was popped into the backfield and picked up and ran in, untouched, by Dean.
In the third quarter, St. Thomas had its own scoop and score from Warren that cut the score to 18-13.
After a penalty on the first attempt at a two-point conversion, an outside toss to Abel was broken up and returned by Sioux Falls’ graduate linebacker Brendan Holt’s own two points.
The Cougars scored 14 more unanswered points in the final quarter to hand Caruso his first home opener loss at St. Thomas and his second season opening loss.
“There’s a really really high bar in order for me to feel the way that I feel today, and those players to feel the way that they feel,” Caruso said. “The positive, if you’re trying to look for a silver lining, is that the level of expectation is absurdly, ridiculously high, and it’s that level of expectation that we’ve hung our proverbial hat on over the years.”
The Division II Cougars were picked to finish eighth out of 13 teams in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. The Pioneer Football League’s preseason poll pegged the Tommies as the second best team in the conference.
“We’re not special. We’re not. Team’s are going to come in here and you will get that, that was their best football game. I watched all 11 of them last year, and I experienced this one today, right?” Caruso said. “That was the best that they’ve played, and hats off to them for doing it, but we can’t be surprised by the fact that we’re going to get their best game. That’s the privilege of pressure.”
No players were made available for interviews.
St. Thomas is looking to put itself on the other side of an upset against The University of Northern Iowa at O’Shaughnessy Stadium at 1 p.m. Sep. 7.
Adam Mueller can be reached at muel7541@stthomas.edu.