First game jitters were not a factor for the No. 10 John Carroll University football team as it dominated Saint Vincent College on Saturday afternoon inside Don Shula Stadium.
The Blue Streaks had a slow start offensively as the offense had two consecutive punts to start the game. John Carroll lit up the scoreboard as the next four drives lead to touchdowns.
Senior quarterback Wes Keller jump started the offensive leading John Carroll on a 5-play, 42-yard drive ending with a 19-yard touchdown strike to Aramis Greenwood.
"Wes played very well," said second-year head coach Tom Arth. "He made some great plays. I'm very proud of Wes coming in and making some big throws. It got points on the board for us."
Two interceptions from the John Carroll defense resulted in two quick 1-play scores for the Blue Streak offense.
The first came from the hands of sophomore safety Reese Armstrong. John Carroll was able to score off a Keller pass to sophomore wide receiver Marshall Howell from 36 yards out with 2:52 remaining in the first quarter. Keller was able to find Howell again in the third quarter for a 25-yard touchdown pass after a well executed 10-play, 89-yard drive.
The Bearcats made another errand throw resulting in an interception by senior Marty Gibbons which was returned 39 yards to the Bearcats 28-yard line. A personal foul penalty on Saint Vincent cut the distance to the end zone in half.
The Blue Streaks' capitalized on the 1-play drive with a Tommy Michals score from a 14 yards out.
Michals rushed for a career-high 182 yards. He carried 27 times and averaged 6.7 yards per tote.
Said Arth, "Wow, I didn't realize he had that many yards. Tommy's a great player. We anticipated him having a great year. We're going to give him a lot of opportunities to continue to do that. We want to be a running football team and be physical. Tommy's a great running back for our offense."
The Blue Streaks continued to run the ball well on a 15-play, 94-yard second quarter drive resulting in another Michals score from the one yard line. For the drive, Michals had nine carries for 29 yards. JCU's ground game was aided by two Keller first down scrambles.
"The coaches knew exactly what to do with their game plan coming in," said Michals. "It comes down to the offensive line, I did a pretty good job but it comes down to them."
Along with an impressive offense was a even better defense. The Blue Streaks executed their defensive schemes effectively as they allowed a total of 105 yards in pitching the second straight season-opening shutout. John Carroll beat St. Norbert 40-0 to open the 2013 season.
"Defensively, I thought we played very, very well," said Arth. "I think they did a great job creating turnovers. They did a great job a number of times in short field situations in knocking Saint Vincent back and out of field goal range which was great to see. The defense responded very well."
John Carroll's special teams set up the defense for a late third quarter safety. A Kyle Rodriguez punt was downed on Saint Vincent's 2-yard line. A quarterback hurry from Joe Nawalaniec resulted in a intentional grounding call on Saint Vincent quarterback Matt Deakins. Because the intentional grounding occurred in the end zone, a safety was awarded.
John Carroll's final touchdown was a 2-yard strike from Jake Schaefer to Rich Miller.
Said Arth, "Jake did some good things as well. We really have to go back and watch film and see what it looked like out there."
Offensively, Keller was 7 of 11 for 126 yards and three scores. Howell led the receivers with five receptions for 87 yards and two touchdowns.
Saint Vincent had no answers for the defensive play of junior David Porter as he totaled six tackles, one being for a loss. Porter had help from Armstrong who totaled six tackles. Jimmy King contributed with five tackles.
John Carroll's next game will be against Heidelberg on Saturday, Sept. 20 at 1:30 p.m. inside Don Shula Stadium.
No Myers No Problem As JCU Wins First Home Opener Since 2007
/seasons/2014/boxscores/20140906_2sjg.xml
2014
St. Vincent
0
John Carroll
44
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Vincent (0-1) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No. 6 John Carroll (1-0) | 21 | 7 | 9 | 7 | 44 |
Sep 06, 2014