St. Thomas football coach Glenn Caruso has seen a lot in his 17 seasons there and more than a decade before that.
Until two weeks ago, he hadn’t seen his team’s defense punt the ball twice near their own goal line and then watch as the opponent picked up the bouncing ball and ran into the end zone for a touchdown.
Division II Sioux Falls accomplished this feat last week in its 34-13 win over the Tommies in the season opener, a performance Caruso described as “horrific” on Saturday.
A Northern Iowa team that crushed the Division I-changing Tommies 44-3 three years ago also scored that way Saturday. This time, the Panthers, who play at Nebraska and Hawaii over the next two weeks, scored the game-winning touchdown that way with less than three minutes left in their 17-10 comeback victory at O’Shaughnessy Stadium.
“I’ve been doing this for 29 seasons and I’ve been here a long time,” Caruso said. “Those are the chances. That’s happened to us once in the last 16 years and now twice in two weeks. Our goal line defense, we get 11 guys on the ball. If we get the bad side of that, it is what it is. The process is right: the way we defend, the way we stop the ball and knock it out. Those are things we can control. I’m not going to waste time on things we can’t control, like how it rebounds.
“The will to grow between Week 1 and 2 was tremendous. If we’re willing to do that in the next 11, 12 weeks, we have a chance to become a pretty good team.”
After last week’s loss, the Tommies played aggressively from start to finish. They attempted a first down on fourth base at Northern Iowa’s 34-yard line and were stopped. They used a few tricks on plays that would give them a long gain or a score. They blocked a punt – and were blocked themselves.
They also missed two field goals from less than 30 yards and made a 45-yard basket for a 10-7 lead late in the third quarter after Caruso showed some confidence in kicker Stephen Shagen.
