St. John’s football moves to 2-0 after defeating No. 5 ranked Wartburg

The St. John’s football team beat Wartburg College this past Saturday 35-13. At the time of the game, Wartburg was the No. 5 ranked team in DIII. St. John’s was ranked as the No. 12 team. Wartburg started hot by scoring on their first drive of the game, but they wouldn’t score again until the fourth quarter.

The Johnnies got on the board midway through the first quarter and never looked back. SJU scored 28 unanswered points to put the game away.

They scored one touchdown in the second quarter and added two more touchdowns in the third quarter to go up 28-7. Wartburg would answer back with a touchdown midway through the fourth quarter, but the game was already out of reach.

St. John’s capped the game off with a touchdown by sophomore Will Blakey with just over three minutes left in the game to make the score 35-13.

Senior quarterback Aaron Syverson threw for 324 yards and three touchdowns in the win. SJU’s running back trio of Blakey, sophomore Jaxon Sawyer and senior Quinn Christoffersen rushed for a total of 85 yards. Junior wide receiver Dylan Wheeler caught 12 passes for 105 yards.

Sophomore wide receiver Riley Schwellenbach caught four passes for 75 yards and one touchdown. Junior tight end Joey Gendreau caught five passes for 62 yards.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Johnnies picked up eleven sacks. Senior linebacker Hayden Sanders and senior defensive lineman Zach Frank had 2.5 sacks each to lead the SJU defense. Sanders also led the Johnnies defense in tackles with ten. Junior linebacker Aiden McMahon picked up eight tackles on the day to have the second most tackles for the Johnnies. St. John’s also had thirteen tackles for loss which helped shut down the Wartburg offense.

The Johnnies will travel to Arden Hills, Minn. for their next game to play the No. 24 ranked Bethel Royals on Sept. 28 at 1 p.m.