Game Leaders
Team Stats
Passing Yards
Rushing Yards
Turnovers
Time of Poss.
St. Thomas broke to a 22-3 second-half lead but needed a late interception in the red zone to seal a 22-17 victory over visiting UW-Eau Claire in Saturday's season-opening football game at O'Shaughnessy Stadium.
The Tommies, who improved to 7-0 in season-opening games under Coach Glenn Caruso, used Sean Hamlin's seventh career interception with the game on the line in the final 45 seconds to deny Eau Claire's late rally.
After the Blugolds (0-1) pulled within five points on a fourth-down, three-yard TD pass with 2:11 to play, they pulled off a successful on-side kick and recovered at their own 41-yard line.
Senior QB MarK Munger, who completed 33-of-58 passes on the day, then converted two fourth-down passes to Chris Cummings to keep the drive and the upset hope alive.
The second catch set up Eau Claire with first-and-10 at the Tommies' 20-yard line with 45 seconds to go, but on the next play, Hamlin beat Cummings to a ball and picked off the pass, wrestling the ball away and holding on at the three-yard line with 36 seconds to play. UST was able to take a knee and run out the clock.
Tommie junior QB Matt O'Connell passed for 183 yards and rushed 13 times for for 97 yards with one TD. Junior running backs Jack Kaiser and Brenton Braddock combined for 99 rushing yards.
The Blugolds, who lost 52-7 to UST here in the 2013 season opener, outgained St. Thomas 393-375 yards. Korey Jacobson had 17 receptions for 106 yards, while Cummings had six catches for 106.
First-game errors hurt each team. Eau Claire had three turnovers, two in the red zone, and missed one of two field-goal tries.
UST was hurt by two turnovers -- one on a mishandled shotgun snap, the other on a tipped-ball interception -- plus had seven penalties for 79 yards. One Tommie holding call negated a short TD run by Nick Waldvogel, and UST came away with no points after a fake field-goal try was stopped.
Tommie senior safety Kyle Coyne had a key forced fumble in the red zone that teammate Jordan Young recovered. Coyne also had an interception at midfield, and was in on 12 tackles.
Ryan Bradley had a career-best four catches for 55 yards.
"It was great to see us come out of a tough situation at the end like that and find a way to win," said UST coach Glenn Caruso. "A close game like this pays much more dividends for us than a game like last year (a 52-7 Tommie win), when we had it all going our way. I've been here seven years, and I think we've only had one time -- last season's win over Eau Claire -- where we played well on the opening game."
Next Saturday, The Tommies are home to face UW-LaCrosse, while Eau Claire is home to face St. John's.