Tommie-Johnnie football at UST this Saturday

September 26, 2000
The 2000 edition of the St. Thomas-St. John's football game will be played Saturday Sept. 30 in O'Shaughnessy Stadium on UST's St. Paul campus.

Kickoff is at 1:05 p.m., and the game will be televised live on ATT Broadband (formerly Media One) in St. Paul and some suburbs. The game also can be heard via the web through the St. John's website:
see link here

Tickets are $5 for adults and $2 for students (college age and younger). St. Thomas students, faculty and staff are admitted free with their identification cards. Tickets go on sale Saturday at 11 a.m., and seating is on a first-come basis. O'Shaughnessy Stadium has 5,000 bleacher seats, and there's also room for a few thousand more fans standing and sitting next to the field. More than 8,000 fans attended the 1999 game, also held at St. Thomas.

The Johnnies, Tommies and Bethel share first place in the MIAC at 2-0. The Johnnies have won seven consecutive MIAC games since last season, and have won six of the last seven meetings with the Tommies. The Toms' last win in St. Paul in the series was a 15-12 upset in 1992. The Toms beat SJU 31-27 in the 1997 finale in the Metrodome.

The Johnnies, 11-2 last season, are 3-0 overall and ranked eighth in NCAA Division III. Senior running back Chris Moore needs 21 yards to become the eighth Johnnie to hit 2,000 career rushing yards. Moore carried 23 times for 116 yards and two TDs in the Johnnies' 34-18 win at St. Thomas in 1999

The Tommies are 2-1 overall with back-to-back wins over Concordia (38-22) and Carleton (36-13). Sophomore Jake Barkley has six TDs in the last two games and has ran for 62, 272 and 196 yards in the three outings in 2000. At Robbinsadle Armstrong High, Barkley was an all-stater and valedictorian in a class of 496 staudents. He rushed for 365 yards as a freshman at UST and now has 895 yards in 13 career games.

UST senior halfback Marcus Ludtke, who played at Concordia-Moorhead his first two seasons, has 1,703 career rushing yards. UST senior fullback Mike Westland has 86 catches for 880 yards on his career.

In a nutshell, the game pits two teams with different makeups. The Johnnies have seniors at 17 of their 22 starting positions, while the Toms start eight sophomores on offense and three sophs and a freshman on defense. The Toms graduated a three-year starter at QB (Greg Kaiser) and the entire offensive line from tackle to tackle from its MIAC runner-up team of 1999.

In NCAA Division III statistics, UST's Barkley is ranked fourth in rushing (176.7 ypa); tied for 20th in scoring (12.0 ppg); and 17th in all-purpose yards (192.0 ypg), which includes rushing, receiving and return yards. The Toms also rank eighth in team rushing (280.7). St. John's ranks eighth in scoring offense (43.7 ppg); 15th in scoring defense (9.0 ppg allowed); and 27th in pass efficiency defense. SJU has three indivisuals ranked in the top 30 -- Blake Elliot is second in punt returns (28.6 ypr); QB Tom Linnemann, who has nine TD passes and no interceptions, ranks 12th in passing efficiency (168.8 points); and TE Nate Kirschner is tied with Barkley at 20th in scoring (12 ppg).

see NCAA stats here

see MIAC 2-game stats here

see St. Cloud Times story on game here