MONMOUTH, Ill. — Sophomore Fritz Waldvogel and junior Ben Wartman combined for 418 all-purpose running yards and visiting St. Thomas (10-1) shut out potent Monmouth College (10-1) in the second half en route to Saturday's 43-21 victory in their first-round NCAA football playoff game.

St. Thomas, in the NCAA playoffs for the first time in 19 seasons, secured the school's first-ever 10-win season in football. 

Coach Glenn Caruso's Tommies will advance to a second-round game vs. Coe, a 34-27 winner over No. 4-ranked St. John's in Collegeville. The site of the Nov. 28 noon playoff game between the Iowa and Minnesota Conference runners-up will be announced Sunday. 

The Toms, who rallied from an early 7-0 deficit, scored the game's final 16 points. St. Thomas controlled the ball for more than 38 of the 60 minutes as it gained 492 yards, had no turnovers, punted just twice and didn't allow a sack. UST scored in six of its seven trips into the red zone.

St. Thomas added a touchdown off a blocked punt. Mommouth, which has averaged 46 ppg over the last two seasons, took its first loss of 2009 and was held to its lowest point total in 26 games.

UST held Monmouth to 30 net rushing yards on 24 carries but did surrender 361 passing yards to All-American QB Alex Tanney in the Scots' dangerous spread, no-huddle offense. Tanney completed 35-of-51 passes with two TDs and no interceptions in the loss. Steve Zidow caught nine passes for 112 yards.

UST had only made three field goals in the 10-game regular season but converted three on Saturday. Senior Brady Beeson drilled field goals of 37, 41 and 42 yards, each one breaking his old career best for distance. Beeson, a former St. John's backup, now has 67 points on the season including a school-record 52 PAT kicks converted.

Wartman rushed 29 times for 177 yards and two touchdowns and caught three passes for 33 yards. He surpassed 100 rushing yards for the 17th time in the last 19 games.

Waldvogel, who has an NCAA-best six kick-punt returns for touchdowns this season, broke a 71-yard kickoff return to the MC 21-yard line. That set up a key second-quarter TD that regained momentum for the Tommies. Waldvogel had 207 all-purpose yards on the day on 16 touches, including a diving 5-yard TD catch on third-and-goal, and 10 overall catches for 96 yards.

Sophomore Colin Tobin rushed 10 times for 87 yards. On special teams, freshman Tyler Erstad returned a blocked punt 22 yards for a second-quarter TD that put UST ahead 20-7.

Sophomore QB Dakota Tracy improved to 4-0 as a starter as he completed 14-of-20 passes for 149 yards with one TD and no interceptions. 

Junior Zack Sturm had a 26-yard fumble return to set up a go-ahead score in the second quarter. Junior Kirk Baglien had two breakups and a forced fumble and the UST defense had three sacks. Junior Bryan Villar had 11 tackles. 

Press release submitted by St. Thomas on Nov 21, 2009 at 06:39 PM Eastern