By DOUG HENNES
WAVERLY, Iowa – St. Thomas kept coming back but just ran out of time on Saturday.
And as a result, the Tommies' football season ended with a 37-31 loss to Wartburg College in the opening round of the NCAA Division III playoffs.
The No. 18 Tommies (8-3) fell behind by nine points three times in the second half and twice cut their deficit to two points before Paul Graupner kicked a field goal with 52 seconds left in the game.
The score closed the gap to 37-31 and Sean Hamlin recovered the ensuing onside kick at the Wartburg 42 with no timeouts remaining. No. 4 Wartburg (11-0) intercepted a John Gould third-down pass at the 22 with 30 seconds remaining to seal the win.
So close . . .
"We felt good after recovering the onside kick," Coach Glenn Caruso said, given the team's success in throwing the ball on three previous drives that resulted in 17 points. "But give them (Wartburg) credit – they made the play (the interception) when they needed it."
Caruso also cited the Tommies' failure to stop Wartburg in the second half. The Knights scored on all three of their possessions to extend their leads to nine points, and the margin proved to be too much for the Tommies to overcome.
"We always kind of were behind the 8-ball," Caruso said. "You knew you needed two more drives, and you had to reach a little deeper on offense. . . . Plus, we didn't get the stops."
The 37 Wartburg points were the most scored by a St. Thomas opponent during Caruso's 73-13 tenure, and the Tommies' 31 points were the most they scored in a loss under the seventh-year coach. It was the fourth time in the last five games that St. Thomas gave up more than 32 points.
With the win, the Knights advance to the second round of the playoffs Nov. 29 and will face St. John's, a 35-7 winner over St. Scholastica. The other Minnesota entry in the playoffs – Macalester, lost 55-2 to defending national champion UW-Whitewater.
Wartburg leads early
Wartburg jumped to a 13-0 first-quarter lead with easy touchdown drives on its first two possessions. The Knights dominated the line of scrimmage and opened big holes for running backs who picked up 53 yards on the first drive and all 64 yards of the second drive.
St. Thomas' first possession ended with a three-and-out punt and Wartburg snuffed the second by intercepting a Gould pass at the Knights' 22, but the Tommies rallied with back-to-back touchdowns in the second quarter.
Sophomore halfback Nick Waldvogel scored on a 1-yard run, picking up 53 rushing and receiving yards on the drive, to cut the Knights' lead to 13-7.
After the St. Thomas defense forced a three-and-out punt to set up good field position at the Wartburg 47, Gould led a 10-play drive featuring two fourth-down conversions and an 11-yard Brenton Braddock touchdown run. Braddock went over 2,000 rushing yards for his career on the drive and scored his 30th touchdown. Paul Graupner's PAT kick put the Tommies up 14-13.
Wartburg responded with a 13-play, 93-yard drive to regain the lead at 20-14 on a Brandon Domeyer's four-yard run with four minutes remaining. Domeyer picked up 92 yards on the ground in the half and finished with 138, while teammate Taylor Jacobsmeier caught five passes for 84 yards in the first half and seven for 109 in the game.
Knights keep scoring, Tommies keep responding
The Knights opened the second half with an 18-play drive that took eight minutes off the clock and ended with a 25-yard field goal for a 23-14 lead. Quarterback Logan Schrader had two key runs for first downs – an 11-yard scramble on third and 10 and an eight-yarder on third and 8.
St. Thomas answered with its own long touchdown drive that included three fourth-down conversions. Charlie Dowdle caught his 12th touchdown pass of the season on a 15-yarder from Gould to cap the 16-play drive, which featured a Braddock run of seven yards and Gould completions of 11 yards (to Dowdle) and 16 yards (to Jack Gilliland) on fourth downs.
The Tommies gambled on the ensuing kickoff with an onside kick, but after a scramble Wartburg emerged with the ball on the St. Thomas 46. Nine plays later, Domeyer scored his third rushing touchdown on fourth and inches inside the 1 and the Knights led 30-21 with 12:17 left in the game.
St. Thomas struck quickly on its next drive, moving 87 yards in seven plays, with Gould hitting Dowdle on a 48-yard touchdown pass. The junior tight end outjumped the defender inside the 10, juggled the ball and just got into the end zone to cut the Wartburg lead to 30-28.
"We made some adjustments at halftime," Dowdle said in referring to how he had just one reception for nine yards in the first half but finished with seven catches for 123 yards. On the touchdown catch, "I just had to come down with the ball. I felt I had it all along."
Gould completed only 7 of 15 passes for 96 yards in the first half but was 13 for 22 and 183 yards after the break. "I dealt better with the pressure" in the second half, he said, "and tried to stay in the pocket as long as I could."
But again, the Tommies could not stop Wartburg after the kickoff. Schrader starred on the drive, running for 44 yards on one play and then scrambling away from a near sack to throw a 10-yard touchdown pass and give Wartburg a 37-28 lead with 4:30 to go.
That set up the wild finish. Gould took over at the St. Thomas 25, completed six passes and ran for 23 yards on fourth and 3, the Tommies' seventh successful fourth-down conversion (out of seven tries). But the drive stalled at the Wartburg 11 and Graupner kicked a 28-yard field goal to bring St. Thomas to within 37-31.
His onside kick traveled 23 yards and bounced among several Knights before Hamlin covered it at the Wartburg 42 with 49 seconds to go. Gould completed one of two passes, to the 39, but his third-down pass was intercepted and the Knights ran out the clock to win the game.