Sophomore quarterback Tak Tateoka threw 211 yards and two touchdowns Saturday afternoon in the Tommies’ 42-14 win over Valparaiso in Indiana.
St. Thomas gashed the Valparaiso defense in the air and on the ground. Tateoka’s two passing touchdowns added to four more from the running back trio of senior Hope Adebayo, junior Gabe Abel and first-year Joseph Koch.
“Hope and Gabe had some really really tough runs, but even with Joey, a freshman, got in there at the end,” coach Glenn Caurso told ESPN Radio, “There were some pretty massive holes too. I do think we were able to wear them down a little bit today. Credit to that front, not just the offensive line but those three tight ends: Matt Rink, Patty Wagner, Mariano Birdno. They did a great job.”
The first three rushing touchdowns were all punch-ins from right outside the goal line. St. Thomas’ run game didn’t fully click until Adebayo ran for 49 and 20 yards back-to-back early in the fourth quarter.
“The coaches are doing a wonderful job making sure that we grow into the offense we need to become,” Caruso said.
Tateoka kept the early-game offense going with his arm, especially after throwing a 74-yard touchdown bomb to junior receiver Colin Chase on the second drive.
After the Beacons tied the game up, Tateoka threw a deep ball down the middle of the field to sophomore receiver Eli Paulson, who broke two tackles and was forced out of bounds at the 1-yard line. Adebayo finished the drive and ran it in.
“Eli Paulson is just everything this program is about, and to be able to see him catch that third drive mix-in there in the middle of all that traffic, and be able to bring it down to the 1-yard line was also pretty cool,” Caruso said.
Senior defensive lineman IBK Mafe forced a fumble just three plays later and Tateoka threw his second touchdown from the 17-yard line to graduate receiver Jacob Wildermuth to make it 21-7.
On the very next drive, St. Thomas punched out another ball and junior defensive back Ryan Calcagno recovered it at the Tommies’ 35-yard line. A Valparaiso unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on that play, and a pass interference on the next, gave way to another long Tateoka to Chase connection, and a 1-yard touchdown rush for Abel.
St. Thomas’ defense added one more turnover in the fourth quarter thanks to an interception by sophomore defensive back Quinton Griffin. The Tommies are now +7 in turnover differential in conference games.
The purple and gray defense held Valparaiso to just 109 rush yards across the entire game. Fifty-nine came in the fourth quarter.
“After the second drive, we were able to limit the run game, not stop it completely, but limit it,” Caruso said.
Near the end of the third quarter, still up 28-7, junior linebacker Mitchell Schares was ejected for a late hit and targeting when he led with his head at the Beacons’ junior quarterback, Michael Appel Jr.
Caruso said that Appel’s back up, redshirt first-year Caron Tyler, “presented a totally different run game.”
After one more passing touchdown from Tyler to make the score 28-14, Caruso began subbing in second- and third-string players. Valparaiso had its best rushing quarter but was kept out of the endzone.
“I thought our coaches did a good job of adjusting, certainly when we put the backups in at the end, we did a horrible job of keeping contained, and we kind of had a slow bleed, even though we didn’t allow a score,” Caruso said.
After one more Adebayo touchdown, third-stringer Koch came into the backfield for one of his own from 44 yards out, making the final score 42-14.
“We were able to get a lot of twos and threes in there, and in a college football program, when you’re trying to grow and build depth, games like this are awesome. We’ve had a lot of games that we would have gone into halftime and kind of petered out, but this was great to see us finish,” Caruso said.
Saturday’s victory puts the Tommies at 3-0 in the Pioneer Football League, tied with Dayton and still behind 4-0 Drake, who barely survived an overtime game against last-place Presbyterian.
St. Thomas will return home on Saturday, Oct. 26 against San Diego at noon at O’Shaughnessy Stadium.
Adam Mueller can be reached at muel7541@stthomas.edu.