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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Johnnies come lately


Whitworth quarterback Joel Clark is sacked by Saint John's defensive lineman Kevin McNamara on Saturday at the Pine Bowl. 
 (Christopher Anderson / The Spokesman-Review)

Few football teams seem to get as much out of halftime as Saint John’s University.

Just what the Johnnies concocted Saturday to pull away from Whitworth College for a 21-3 victory at the Pine Bowl and a berth in the NCAA Division III playoff quarterfinals depends on who you ask.

Certainly the Johnnies decided to get the ball into the hands of running back Mike Lofboom more often, and made some adjustments to bottle up Whitworth’s running game and ratchet up the pressure on Pirates quarterback Joel Clark. But the real change may have been more basic than brilliant.

“We just had to play better,” said Saint John’s coach John Gagliardi. “A couple of the assistant coaches were trying to invent plays and I said, ‘Geez, just execute what we’ve got. Don’t draw up something in the sand – you don’t need to do that.’ “

In any event, the Johnnies have that second-half knack. They had outscored opponents 98-7 in the third quarter this season and upped that immediately against the Pirates with a 64-yard scoring drive in which Lofboom accounted for 35 yards, including the last 11 on an option pitch from quarterback Alex Kofoed.

That pushed the Saint John’s lead to 14-3 and put considerable pressure on the Pirates, who in the first half had made four thrusts into SJU territory but had just a 29-yard Cam Collings field goal to show for it. Whitworth had won its playoff opener last week against Occidental with a last-minute drive and had other notable fantastic finishes this year, but the Pine Bowl crowd of 2,450 knew that was going to be harder against an opponent as sound as Saint John’s.

“At halftime, we thought we’d come back and even in the fourth quarter,” said Whitworth coach John Tully. “We had great confidence. But sometimes it takes a play and it always seemed to be a little off for us. They just made more plays than we did today.”

That brought to an end the most successful season in school history for the eighth-ranked Pirates (11-1), who until this year had never won a postseason game.

“We did a lot of good things this year,” said linebacker Casey Clifton. “We’ll get our name out there and get some recruits and rebuild and go out and do it again next year.”

The 12th-ranked Johnnies (11-1) got career win No. 443 for the 80-year-old Gagliardi, the all-time leader among college coaches. Now they go right back on the road to face West Region top seed Wisconsin-Whitewater (12-0).

“They knocked us out last year,” said Kofoed. “We’ve got a little vendetta against them.”

In a first half that was virtually a statistical draw, the Johnnies’ edge came on an 80-yard drive on their first possession – Kofoed completing all three of his passes and Craig Luberts scoring on a 15-yard run, bouncing into an open lane off left tackle after seemingly being stopped at the line of scrimmage. The Johnnies would manage just 4 yards rushing the rest of the half – hence Gagliardi’s admonition to get back to basics. Lofboom, a weapon more as a receiver in the first half, ran for 71 of his 83 yards after intermission.

“We were actually a bit more worried about the pass than the run coming into the game,” Clifton admitted. “and that might have showed a little bit.”

After falling behind 14-3, the Pirates once again drove past midfield, only to be foiled by a botched shotgun snap on third down. Saint John’s ate up the rest of the third quarter with another march, and took advantage of a short field after an exchange of punts to put together a 39-yard drive, capped by Kofoed’s 6-yard pass to Kyle Gearman.

Whitworth’s last gasp was a drive from its own 4-yard line late in the game that included three passes to 6-foot-7 tight end Michael Allan, including a spectacular 29-yarder. But it petered out on the SJU 7, stalled by a false start penalty and two incompletions.

“That one guy gives me nightmares,” Gagliardi said of Allan, who caught six passes for 101 yards – nearly half of Clark’s total of 221. “We had that last pass covered and he still made the catch – he’s got great hands. He’s going to be a pro, I think. I don’t see how he can miss.”

St. John’s 21, Whitworth 3

St. John’s707721
Whitworth03003

SJU—Luberts 15 run (Gliadon kick)

WC—FG Collings 29

SJU—Lofboom 11 run (Gliadon kick)

SJU—Gearman 6 pass from Kofoed (Gliadon kick)

A—2,450.

SJUWC
First downs2417
Rushes-yards33-16530-77
Passing237221
Comp-Att-Int22-31-217-31-0
Return Yards2212
Punts-Avg.2-42.56-30.5
Fumbles-Lost0-01-1
Penalties-Yards4-305-30
Time of Possession31:2028:40

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING—St. John’s, Lofboom 13-83, Luberts 8-37, Patnode 4-27, Schnobrich 2-15, Blackmore 2-5, Haugen 1-0, Kofoed 3-(minus 2). Whitworth, Havercroft 18-84, Nelson 5-11, Clark 7-(minus 18).

PASSING—St. John’s, Kofoed 22-31-2-237. Whitworth, Clark 17-31-0-221.

RECEIVING—St. John’s, Lofboom 5-83, Patnode 4-42, Gearman 4-30, Weber 3-25, Haugen 2-21, Luberts 2-19, Royce-Diop 1-10, Salvato 1-7. Whitworth, Allan 6-101, Silva 5-63, Thomas 2-15, Havercroft 2-11, Tully 1-21, Koller 1-10.