Sophomore quarterback Tak Tateoka threw for 122 yards and two touchdowns and ran another two in the 39-32 victory over Marist College Saturday in Poughkeepsie, New York.
Saturday was the first game all season that the Tommies stuck to one quarterback for the entire game. St. Thomas had gone three deep into the depth chart in previous games to find their quarterback in the first five games.
“I know he’s not there, but it definitely was a heck of a lot better performance than we’ve seen out of that position group for the last month,” coach Glenn Caruso told ESPN Radio after the game.
St. Thomas’ second drive of the game started at Marist’s 35-yard line. Except for an 11-yard rush from Tateoka, junior running back Gabe Abel took the team to three yards out of the endzone himself on six carries.
Junior tight end Matt Rink caught his second ball of the year and his first touchdown of the season with 2:33 left to play in the first quarter. St. Thomas scored every time they reached the redzone on offense.
“That was a pretty massive failure, in my opinion, the last two games and the coaches made that a focal point: entering the redzone, finishing,” Caruso said.
On the first play of the Red Foxes’ next drive, senior defensive back Nick Hand picked off Marist sophomore quarterback Sonny Mannino and took it all the way to the 1-yard line.
That was Mannino’s only interception as he led the Marist offensive charge from the air, throwing 25-46 for 211 yards and five touchdowns.
Tateoka snuck the ball in the endzone the next play and a two-point conversion of a fake extra-point attempt put St. Thomas up 15-0.
The Red Foxes stormed back in the second quarter. The Tommies almost forced another Red Fox four-and-out but a roughing the kicker penalty gave them second life.
Mannino began the team’s comeback and threw for three unanswered touchdowns. Marist led 18-15 as St. Thomas continued its special teams excellence and blocked two extra points while the third went wide-right.
“The field goal and PAT team, total winning edge, and our field goal/PAT block team right? We blocked three, albeit some of their kicks were low. (We) made all our field goals and PATs, and then that two-point conversion actually was large because when we blocked their second one, it kept it at a three-point game,” Caruso said.
The Tommie defense had multiple chances to stop the second touchdown drive, but a series of penalties kept giving Marist second chances and 35 free yards. St. Thomas committed nine penalties in all, for 75 yards.
“There were too many today, and that’s on us, and that’s something we need to work on,” Caruso said.
Caruso said that the second quarter performance shows room for improvement despite the win.
“That second quarter got away from us when we roughed the punter, we ran into the punter, and then we got a punt blocked,” Caruso said, “We got out-schemed, we got out-coached on that one. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
First-year kicker Ben Hoiland drilled a career-long 45-yard field goal in the final moments of the half to tie the game 18-18.
“I know it was only three points, but that score before half –to be able to have 56 seconds and chunk it down– I said, ‘Guys, I’ve got to get to the 32-yard line.’ I think they got to the 31-yard line and we had two seconds left on the clock. So, to see some of that execution come into play is important,” Caruso said.
“Even though it was a tie score, we had to do everything to keep that thing tied. A lot of things weren’t going our way and we just need to … stay the course, and that’s exactly what these guys did,” Caruso said.
Abel, senior running back Hope Adebayo and graduate receiver Jacob Wildermuth combined for a 70-yard touchdown drive to start the third quarter to put the team up 25-18. The three players are all in their second game back after suffering injuries earlier in the season.
“It’s great to have those guys back. When you take your one and two fullbacks out of your starting rotation due to injury and then top tailbacks, top fullback, top receiver, it’s tough,” Caruso said.
The offense put together another long drive after Marist was stalled and used more than seven minutes of game time to score another touchdown to start the fourth quarter.
Marist scored two more touchdowns in the final quarter, but Abel’s first touchdown of the season in the final minutes put the game out of reach.
Saturday’s win puts the Tommies at a tie for second place with the University of Dayton in the Pioneer Football League standings. Drake University sits at the top at 3-0, having played one more game than the Tommies.
St. Thomas travels to play Valparaiso University Saturday, Oct. 19 at 1 p.m. at Brown Field in Indiana.
Adam Mueller can be reached at muel7541@stthomas.edu.