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With just over six minutes to play in the first quarter, St. John’s was on its own 20-yard line. As the RPI defense focused on Elliott, they fell asleep on Josh Nelson coming out of the backfield. The small but raucous RPI crowd was silenced as Nelson ran straight up the seam catching the ball and taking it 80 yards for the score. It was the Johnnies’ longest touchdown from the line of scrimmage this season.
With so much attention on Elliott at the wide receiver position the last two games, it seemed St. John’s offensive coordinator Jim Gagliardi had been planning schemes to dupe the opponent by using players in different positions. After moving Elliott to running back last week in the victory over Linfield he was using Nelson this week more on receiving plays.
“We don’t plan anything,” Gagliardi said about preparing to move players around before the game. “We just know we have the type of athletes who are going to find a way to contribute.”
“My freshman year here at SJU I played receiver and that has benefited me throughout my career,” Nelson said. “Many of the balls that I catch are routes that I run out of the backfield which are open due to teams double- or triple-covering Blake.”
Nelson’s scamper opened the scoring but RPI didn’t roll over and die. They battled back and scored on the next play with a 21-yard touchdown from Dan Cole to Dan Stephens. The two teams traded field goals in the second quarter and went to the break tied at 10 — the first time SJU has not led at halftime this season.
Throughout the playoffs St. John’s has become a second half team and Saturday may have been the most vivid example of this as the defense tightened up and the offense primed itself to take over.
“We’ve done very well making adjustments at halftime,” Gagliardi said. “The biggest thing we try to do is quit making mistakes.”
They hardly made any in the second half against RPI and used a 10-minute flurry between the third and fourth quarter to pile up four consecutive touchdowns while holding RPI scoreless.
Nelson caught a 6-yard pass from Keating to close out the third quarter scoring and then caught another one early in the fourth to get the hat trick. The Johnnies were up by 14 points and on their way to a rematch of the 2000 Stagg Bowl with Mount Union.
They added a 36-yard interception return by Cole Dieble and another (ho, hum) touchdown by Josh Nelson (this time on the ground) to push it to 38-10 and the eventual victory.
 Photo by Ryan Coleman, D3football.com Josh Nelson's 80-yard touchdown catch gave St. John's an early lead on RPI. |
Still he acknowledged Elliott’s role in his performance.
“Blake can dominate a game even when he does not have the ball,” Nelson said. “He draws so much attention from defenses, they forget about other players and that creates easier yards and touchdowns.”
To contend in this year’s rematch with Mount Union, one would think St. John’s will need to keep the Purple Raiders guessing on defense, whether Elliott can make it into the game or not.
With receivers becoming running backs and running backs becoming receivers it seems as though St. John’s just may have a few more tricks up its sleeve.