St. Thomas football defeated D-II Northern Michigan 20-7 Saturday afternoon at the Superior Dome.
Four days after receiving five votes in the AFCA FCS top-25 coaches poll, the Tommies avoided a loss against the Wildcats despite entering the fourth quarter down 7-6. Northern Michigan entered the game on a 24-game losing streak that dates back to November 2022.
“A lot of teams love to play really well against us. I had the coaches tell me that’s the hardest their team’s ever played. I had the chain crew tell us that’s the hardest they’ve ever played … that should be something that we welcome,” coach Glenn Caruso said postgame in an interview with ESPN Radio. “We played a bad half of football.”
Northern Michigan kept the Tommies’ offense at bay after a first-quarter touchdown. When St. Thomas graduate quarterback Andy Peters took the huddle halfway through the fourth quarter, the offense desperately needed a signature drive.
After failing to generate any points previously, Peters relied on his two-way ability with the game on the line. The signal caller picked up three first downs — two with his legs and one with a 34-yard pass to graduate receiver JaShawn Todd — and finished the drive with a passing touchdown to sophomore tight end Marc Coy.
After a Wildcats punt, senior tight end Patrick Wagner raced down the left sideline for 72 yards with 3:04 left but was tackled short of the endzone. The Tommies took a 20-7 lead two plays later as Wagner breezed through the Northern Michigan defense.
Despite the early setbacks, Peters ended the game with 220 total yards and three passing touchdowns. A St. Thomas ground game that averages just over 241 yards per game this season faltered, only mustering 54 yards.
“They committed a lot — like nine dudes to the run game,” Caruso said. “Sometimes when you’re facing a team that’s gonna commit that much to stopping one thing, you gotta come back with a counter punch. It took us a little while to get to it, but we did.”
The Wildcats employed a run-first style, usually lining up with two running backs in the backfield. Even though the Tommies limited explosive plays, only allowing one play over 16 yards, Northern Michigan pounded the run for 54 carries and controlled the tempo of the game. The Wildcats averaged a measly 2.4 yards per carry and 7 yards per pass completion.
“Credit to them for staying in their offense. It took a two-score lead to get them out of it. And then obviously once things became one-dimensional we could turn the dogs loose,” Caruso said.
In the week prior to the game, defensive coordinator Wallie Kuchinski emphasized limiting the opponents’ big play ability as the next step for his unit.
“We gotta handle explosive plays better … I think there’s, at times, a good defense in there. I think there’s some huge third-down stops,” Kuchinski said to The Crest Thursday. “One of the predictors to success, I think, is explosive plays given up.”
The Tommies now have a chance to heal and recover several starters in their secondary as they enter their bye week. St. Thomas is set to travel to the University of San Diego to face the Toreros on Sept. 27 in their first conference game.
“Sometimes growing is fun, like beating a team that beat you the year before … sometimes growing is finding unconventional or ugly ways to win a game when you can absolutely, easily let it slip,” Caruso said.
Juan Del Valle can be reached at delv9625@stthomas.edu.
