ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Macalester College football team hosted Saint John's University for the first time in 25 years, with the No. 3 Johnnies winning, 62-6 Saturday afternoon at John Leaney Field at Macalester Stadium. The Scots are now 3-2 overall and 2-2 in the conference, while the Johnnies remain unbeaten at 5-0 overall and 4-0 in the MIAC.
The last time Saint John's visited Macalester was in 2001, in a 56-7 win over the Scots.
Although the vaunted Johnnies' offense would eventually produce 581 yards, the Macalester defense was able to stop the visitors on downs on their first possession. After the Scots' offense stalled on their first possession and punted, Saint John's went 80 yards on four plays and scored on a 24-yard pass from Trey Feeney to Thomas Jacobs for the first points of the game. Macalester answered with a 65-yard drive that included a 34-yard pass from junior quarterback
Jack Scully (Menlo Park, Calif./Sacred Heart Prep) to junior receiver
Paxton Boyd (Newton, Mass./Newton South) and ended with a 27-yard field goal by sophomore
Andrew Wetherill (Langhorne, Pa./The Hun School of Princeton). The field goal marked the only points scored against the Johnnies this season by a team not ranked in the top-25.
After Saint John's scored a touchdown on a two-yard run by Corey Bohmert on the first play of the second quarter, junior defensive lineman
Jake Ray (Houston, Texas/Tompkins) blocked the extra point attempt by Matt Hansen, who had made 107 consecutive extra-point attempts prior to Ray's block. An interception gave the ball back to the Johnnies, who went 79 yards on nine plays to score again for a 20-3 advantage. After Saint John's found the end zone two minutes before halftime, Macalester drove 69 yards on 10 plays to move the ball to the 6-yard line for another Wetherill field goal that made the score 27-6 at the half. The Scots gained 157 yards, including 130 yards passing, with 11 first downs in the first half.
The second half was a different story, as the Johnnies limited Macalester to 31 yards the rest of the way. Feeney threw four touchdown passes after halftime, and Reese Dawson added another touchdown pass in the game's final minutes. Feeney totaled 483 yards and seven touchdowns, with Jacobs catching 10 passes for 169 yards and three touchdowns. Sam Nolan also had three touchdown receptions.
Scully was 13-of-32 for 151 yards with two interceptions, while Boyd caught nine passes for 110 yards. Defensively, junior linebacker
Dylan Jeppe (Glencoe, Ill./New Trier) registered eight tackles, and senior defensive back
Hayden Pierce (Roseville, Minn./Roseville Area) and first year defensive back
Marcos Aguilar (Miami, Fla./St. Brendan) each had seven tackles.
Macalester returns to action next Saturday, Oct. 17 with a MIAC game at Augsburg. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. in Minneapolis, Minn.
