Sno' problem: Tommies pull away with defense, ground game
| Colin Tobin had 206 yards
rushing and three touchdowns for St. Thomas in the opening-round
win. Photo by Scott Pierson for St. Scholastica |
Senior RB Colin Tobin rushed 31 times for a career-best 206 yards and three touchdowns and the Tommie defense pitched another shutout and allowed just 73 total yards in Saturday's 48-2 UST home victory in round one of the Division III football playoffs in St. Paul.
The Tommies (11-0) rolled up 504 yards and had no turnovers and improved to 4-0 all-time in NCAA first-round games. St. Thomas has won 23 of its last 24 games, and improved to 13-1 against non-MIAC teams in Glenn Caruso's four-year era.
St. Thomas advances to a Nov. 26 second-round game against Monmouth (Ill.), a winner in three overtimes at Illinois Wesleyan. Game site will be announced Sunday afternoon with a strong chance UST will be the host site.
Saturday's loss ending a 14-game winning streak for the Saints (10-1), who are in just their fourth season of football and were making their NCAA playoff debut.
St. Thomas' defense had two interceptions and four sacks, and allowed just four first downs and 14 net rushing yards. UST has allowed just four touchdowns in its last seven games.
Senior Dakota Tracy scored on a fourth-and-1 bootleg in the second quarter for a 13-2 lead. Tracy finished with 125 passing yards in three quarters of play. Senior Fritz Waldvogel added a 15-yard run and caught seven passes for 75 yards including a one-handed sideline reception for 40 yards that set up another third-quarter TD. Junior kicker Tim Albright had five touchbacks and was 6-for-6 on PATs to run his consecutive streak to 72, including all 50 attempted this season.
Tobin surpassed 1,000 yards on the year and now has eight TDs in four career postseason games. He moved into second place on the St. Thomas career list for touchdowns with 46.
Snow started during pregame warmups and covered the field by kickoff. The Tommies surrendured a safety on the game's first play on a muffed kickoff return that rolled into the end zone with the return man tackled.
UST still led just 6-2 midway through the second quarter before running off five touchdowns in a 16:22 stretch on the clock to take a 41-7 lead late in the third quarter.
Two Tommie freshmen running backs from northern California scored snowstorm touchdowns -- Aaron Terell-Byrd from 11 yards and Ryan Toney from 7 yards.
On defense, Tyler Erstad and Will Hersman had interceptions, and Tremayne Williams had two sacks among eight tackles.
The Saints defense was led by Alec French with one tackle for loss among 10 solos, and Chas Lemon with two pass knock downs.
