A homecoming crowd of 5,274 at St. Thomas’ O’Shaughnessy Stadium on Saturday afternoon found itself in unexpected celebration mode early in overtime against the Butler Bulldogs.
Butler, lined up at the Tommies’ 1-yard line, appeared poised to take a touchdown lead, but a fumble on a quarterback sneak was scooped up by St. Thomas linebacker Jordan Pendelton and carried 96 yards into the end zone.
Jubilation soon turned to stunned disbelief, however, when it was determined that the Tommies lined up offside on the play, giving the Bulldogs the ball back inside the 1-yard line. This time the quarterback sneak was a success, and Butler escaped with a 21-14 victory.
“In the moment I thought it was pretty cool,” said Tommies linebacker Caden Nelson of the fumble return. “Apparently we had a guy offsides; we’ll have to check out the film.
“We can control what we can control. Go back and look at it and fix what needs to be fixed. But we had multiple opportunities to win that game, it doesn’t just come down to one play.”
Indeed, the Tommies (2-3, 0-2 Pioneer Football League) were done in by the same inconsistent play that led to them blowing a 17-point lead in the second half in last week’s loss at San Diego.
“Crushed in terms of how we played and how we didn’t play,” Tommies head coach Glenn Caruso said. “We did not play well, in my opinion, for way too long. And that led to a loss. No matter how tight the game — whether it was overtime — it leads to a loss that we could have averted.”
The Tommies, who entered the fourth quarter trailing 14-7, had a good chance to win the game in regulation. After tying it on a rushing touchdown by quarterback Andy Peters on their first drive of the fourth quarter, the Tommies got the ball back at their 20-yard line with one minute, 51 seconds to play after Butler missed a 28-yard field goal.
The Tommies’ offense then went to work, moving the ball 49 yards in seven plays to set up a potential game-winning 38-yard field goal by Ben Hoiland with two seconds remaining. A false start penalty on the Tommies pushed the ball back five yards.
Hoiland’s 43-yard kick was blocked.
“They came with an all-out block,” Caruso said. “Unfortunately, one of our guys on the left side, instead of staying down in his gap, popped back out. They came through the gap.”
The loss was a major blow to the Tommies’ hopes of winning the league title and earning a bid to the FCS playoffs in their first year of eligibility.
“There were high hopes coming in,” Nelson said. “Starting off 0-2 in conference is not what we planned on and not what we wanted. The most important thing is sticking together moving forward; keeping the glue in that locker room.
“We’re going to have other opportunities. You never know what’s going to happen in the Pioneer League.”
The Tommies scored on their first possession of the game when Peters connected with wide receiver Quentin Cobb-Butler on a 29-yard touchdown pass. But the offense stalled for most of the remainder of the first half.
Said Cobb-Butler, who had six catches for 69 yards, “We just couldn’t get stuff clicking, really, until later in the game.”
The Tommies did reach the red zone in the closing seconds of the first half, but Peters threw an interception in the end zone, and the Tommies went to the locker room trailing 14-7.
“We simply cannot — and this is now three of the past five weeks I’ve said this — we cannot continue to operate in the red zone the way we have been, because it’s simply not good enough,” Caruso said.
“Whether it’s the interception, whether it’s not finishing in a short-yardage situation, those types of things lead to days like today and the feelings that we have right now.”
Caruso was pleased with how the defense responded in the second half. His unhappiness with the offense, along with the red zone problems, also focused on what he felt was a bad ratio of running to passing plays.
Peters completed 16 of 27 passes for 193 yards. The running backs combined for 122 yards on 30 carries.
“That first drive was about everything that you would want,” Caruso said. “But there were still things we needed to do. We were heavy on the pass side, and certainly at the end of the day that’s what got us.”
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