The St. Thomas football team celebrated senior day and sent the class of 2022 out in a remarkable fashion with a 54-15 victory over Presbyterian College Saturday at O’Shaughnessy Stadium.
The Tommies (7-3, 6-2 Pioneer Football League) extended their home regular-season win streak to 31 games with the win, solidifying them into a third place tie in the PFL during their first season at the Division I level. Presbyterian (2-9, 0-8 PFL) remains in last place in the PFL, extending its losing streak to nine games.
The class of 2022 remained undefeated at O’Shaughnessy Stadium over the last five years and Saturday’s victory maintained an undefeated streak on senior days during the coach Glenn Caruso era.
“It’s been a blessing just being undefeated at home,” senior quarterback Tommy Dolan said. “This is a great way to go out and we’ll always remember … the guys who came before us who were playing on the field; they earned it just as much as we did.”
However, the number of victories and conference standings are not what Caruso was focused on Saturday. Instead, he was interested in thanking the senior class for their efforts.
“I don’t know if I have ever had as much fun as I had this season and a lot of it was simply because I got the chance to go to work with those (seniors) every single day,” Caruso said.
The senior class showed up against Presbyterian. Senior defensive backs Joe Hird and Luke Glenna had a combined three interceptions during the game, one coming on a pick-six by Glenna late in the second quarter to put the Tommies ahead 29-15.
Both of the Tommies’ senior quarterbacks in Dolan and Cade Sexauer got to play in the game. Dolan added 126 yards passing on 7-of-14 completions, and Sexauer completed 3-of-3 passes for 72 yards.
Senior running back Nick Rice rushed for two scores during the game, one off of a 16-yard run during the Tommies’ opening possession and the other on a 40-yard sprint past multiple blue and white jerseys.
The solid play from Caruso’s seniors forced the coach to look back on his players’ time at St. Thomas.
“They have served each other and this program very well, they’ve served this department and this university tremendously well, they are as proud Tommie alumni as you will ever see,” Caruso said.
Senior running back Tom Loeffler added a score to the Tommies’ impressive offensive stat line early in the third quarter on a 9-yard rush.
Due to the high scoring game and it being senior day, Caruso was able to get every senior on the roster into the game, giving players opportunities that they may not have been able to have otherwise.
Senior running back Wyatt Draper played in his first Division I game Saturday. He also scored on a 2-yard rush early in the fourth quarter, adding in one final blow to the Blue Hose.
The Blue Hoses’ non-punting and onside kick style of play keeps teams guessing quite often, but the Tommies were able to navigate it with relative ease.
“They put teams in uncomfortable situations,” Caruso said, “That’s one of the reasons why coach (Kevin) Kelley is very, very good at what he’s done over a long period of time.”
The Tommies racked up 227 rush yards and 209 receiving yards on the day as well as sporting a season-high 54 points on eight touchdowns from six different Tommies.
“For the seniors, it’s our last game,” Dolan said. “We cherish every moment since we woke up this morning.”
Cam Kauffman can be reached at kauf8536@stthomas.edu.