St. Thomas football opens fifth FCS season with victory over Lindenwood

The St. Thomas football team was playing host to a media session early in fall practice with four veteran players and coach Glenn Caruso. The players were asked how they remembered the trip back from St. Joseph, Mo., early in the 2024 season, after suffering a 64-0 defeat to the Lindenwood Lions.

Caruso beat the athletes to the answer, repeating one of his philosophies of life, that hard times should be embraced as readily as good times — basically, because the hard ones will make for a complete person ready for the next challenge.

Chalk one up for Coach Caruso.

On Thursday night, Lindenwood completed the two-game series with a trip to St. Paul to face the Tommies at O’Shaughnessy Stadium.

Final: St. Thomas 35, Lindenwood 13.

For Caruso, this would not be revenge, it would be a team with resolve — a hard time leading to a triumph.

Caruso used to get a bit of heat in his Division III days when his Tommies would fake a kick when facing an overmatched opponent in the MIAC. It was the execution of one of those fake kicks early in the second half that turned this game toward the home team.

St. Thomas had reached the Lindenwood 9. Ben Hoiland came in for the chip-shot field goal to give the Tommies the lead.

The holder was Stefano Giovannelli. He is a wide receiver and was an all-around athlete at St. Louis Park. He rose up with the snap and sped successfully toward the left pylon. With that, the Tommies had a 14-7 lead and Lindenwood knew it was playing a team that did not resemble the outfit it bludgeoned one year earlier.

Lindenwood and St. Thomas exchanged touchdowns after that, with Graham adding a missed extra point to his field-goal woes. Then, with it 21-13, Lindenwood was ready to get back the ball with a Tommies punt.

It was third-and-a-bunch, the play was stopped, and then came a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on a Lindenwood defensive back. A few plays later, Tommies running back Joseph Koch was darting into the end zone and St. Thomas was in control.

This is St. Thomas’ fifth season in Division I — as an FCS team in the non-scholarship Pioneer Football League. Lindenwood is in its fourth year in the Ohio Valley Conference, an FCS conference that offers scholarships.