St. Thomas and St. John's have been playing football for 114 years, but in seven days they will be part of two firsts in their rich rivalry – a second game in the same season and their first time as opponents in the NCAA Division III playoffs.
Both teams cruised to easy home wins on Saturday, with the No. 3-ranked Tommies (11-0) turning away La Verne 58-14 before 1,832 chilled fans in O'Shaughnessy Stadium and the No. 10 Johnnies (10-1) defeating Dubuque 51-7 in Collegeville. The NCAA is expected to announce Sunday that the highly anticipated rematch will be at noon Saturday, Nov. 28, at St. Thomas.
"Excited is an understatement in that locker room right now," Coach Glenn Caruso told reporters in his post-game news conference. "It is difficult for me to express how exciting this opportunity is not only for our players but for the whole university."
Minutes earlier, Caruso sounded a cautionary note with his players. "Forget about what happened two months ago," he said, referring to the Tommies' 35-14 win at St. John's. Instead, he said, they should relish "a great opportunity to play your rival twice."
St. Thomas, as it did during the last four weeks of the regular season, started slowly Saturday against La Verne. The Leopards, the 8-1 champions of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, held the Tommies off the board in the first quarter for the first time this season.
But St. Thomas rebounded quickly and scored three second-quarter touchdowns in a seven-minute span – two of them by air on one-play drives – to lead 21-0 at halftime. The Tommies added three touchdowns in the fourth quarter to exceed 50 points for the eighth time this season.
"Everyone wants to get off to a fast start," said Caruso, whose team improved to 12-5 in the postseason during his eight years. "But it's a long game," and he was pleased with how his team adjusted in the second quarter and took command.
Halfback Jordan Roberts' eight-game streak of rushing for more than 100 yards ended against La Verne. He gained 75 yards on the ground to run his season total to 1,514, and a 36-yard touchdown reception allowed him to finish the game with 111 yards from scrimmage.
Quarterback John Gould led the offense with 310 yards on 15 of 28 passing, including two touchdown passes – the first to Roberts and the second, 67 yards, to Charlie Dowdle. The All-Region tight end had six catches for 113 yards; right behind him was wide receiver Nick Waldvogel with 110 yards on four catches.
St. Thomas moved the ball well on its first two drives but turned the ball over on downs both times. Roberts carried the ball on all seven plays of the opening drive, moving from the La Verne 43 to its 6, but came up short on a fourth-and-1 sweep. On the Tommies' ensuing 11-play drive, fullback Dom Truoccolo was tackled for a five-yard loss on a fourth-and-6 reverse from the La Verne 33.
The Tommies got on the board on their fourth possession, a five-play, 68-yard drive highlighted by a 56-yard pass play to Waldvogel. He caught the ball on a short route, whirled around a defender and raced down the sideline before he was caught from behind at the La Verne 8. Two plays later, Roberts notched his 26th touchdown of the year, and 25th rushing, on a two-yard run. Roberts ran in the PAT for an 8-0 St. Thomas lead five minutes into the second quarter.
A La Verne fumble and a failed fourth-down conversion on the next two drives led to 14 lightning-quick St. Thomas points and a 21-0 lead.
Linebacker Alex Stevson recovered a fumble at the Leopard 36 and on the next play Gould hit Roberts deep across the middle for a touchdown. The Tommies held La Verne on fourth-and-4 at their 34, and on the next play Gould connected with Dowdle for a 67-yard scoring strike down the middle. In both cases, the receivers had a step on their defenders and outran them to the end zone.
"The middle of the field was pretty open," said Gould, who has 23 touchdown passes for the season.
"We split the field with our receivers and I was able to get by the safety, who had me 1 on 1," said the 6-foot-4 Dowdle. "He was on my back a little and dove for my ankles (at the 20), but I was able to break free."
If Caruso was displeased about anything in the first half, it was what he called "the worst coaching on my part" when La Verne pulled off not one but two fake punts in the second quarter. Neither fourth-down conversion led to any points.
La Verne's starting and backup quarterbacks both left the game with injuries – William Livingston after the third play and Zachary Tomlinson late in the second quarter. Freshman Josh Evans took his first snaps of the season and led the Leopards on two touchdown drives.
A Gould interception near midfield led to the first La Verne touchdown, a 10-yard pass from Evans to Ezrus Broadus. The Tommies responded with three straight rushing touchdowns and a 43-7 lead – 32 yards by freshman halfback Tucker Trettel, 15 yards on a reverse by wide receiver Jack Gilliland and 1 yard by Truoccolo.
An Evans 60-yard pass highlighted La Verne's other scoring drive, capped on an eight-yard run by halfback Travis Sparks-Jackson. He finished with 155 yards on the ground, the most by a St. Thomas opposing runner this year.
St. Thomas closed the scoring with another Trettel run, this one from one yard out, and a 16-yard Jeremy Molina run with 26 seconds left in the game.
After a mild regular season with nearly perfect weather, the Tommies found themselves playing in 23-degree temperatures and a wind chill of 12 at kickoff. The conditions didn't bother junior safety Bennett Celichowski, who had three solo tackles and assisted on eight others. "It wasn't any different than playing in the yard when you were a kid," he said.
La Verne, having left 80-degree weather in the Los Angeles area, prepared for the colder weather by having players without shirts during their Friday walkthrough. "It wasn't a big factor," Coach Chris Crich said of the weather. "It gets real cold in Huntington Beach . . . about 60," Sparks-Jackson said to laughter in the news conference.