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Four minutes into the second quarter it appeared that the Saint Scholastica football team had its hands full against the quick-striking Westminster Blue Jays.
It was Saturday afternoon, and the Saints had the perfect Trick or Treat combination. Quarterback Kyle Stepka and wide receiver Hunter Thompson were responsible for the bag of tricks that led to an eye-popping treat for the Saints fans at Public Schools Stadium.
The Saints had pulled ahead 21-12 in the second quarter on Stepka’s second touchdown pass, when the Saints got the ball back. Suddenly, Thompson was sprinting behind the Westminster defense, and easily ran under a Stepka pass. He even had time to glance back at the nearest defender before completing a 71-yard touchdown play.
Was it a trick play sensed by Saints coach Kurt Ramler?
“No, that was one called by our quarterback,” said Ramler, a former quarterback at St. John’s. “We call it ‘License to Thrill,’ and we tell everyone that if you see something out there that you think might work, tell us. Kyle said the defensive backs were crowding up, and he thought this one might work.”
After trading touchdowns with Westminster, the Stepka-to-Thompson bomb ignited a 27-point second quarter en route to a 48-12 Saints victory over Westminster.
The victory sent the Saints onward and upward to a perfect 8-0 record and at least a share of the outright UMAC championship, and sent Westminster back home to Missouri at 5-3 and with no chance to catch the Saints.
The Saints won for the eighth straight time following an opening nonconference loss at Ripon, and also earned the conference’s guaranteed spot in the NCAA Division III playoffs, as they head for Greenville this Saturday.
“We’re good people up here, and we like to share,” said Saints coach Kurt Ramler. “But not the trophy. We hope to go down to Greenville and secure the title outright.”
Stepka’s first of four touchdown passes went to Mitch O’Neil, a 27-yarder that gave the Saints a 7-6 lead after one quarter when the Blue Jays got the tying touchdown, but not the tying extra point. In the second quarter, Chris Gassert ran 13 yards for his first of two touchdowns and a 14-6 lead, but again Westminster countered with a touchdown and a failed conversion.
Right about then, however, it seemed that everywhere Stepka looked, he saw either a wide-open receiver or someone open enough to throw the ball to, and the junior from New Prague directed three more touchdowns, all of which were unanswered.
For the game, Stepka set a St. Scholastica record with 453 yards and four touchdowns as the Saints compiled 685 total offensive yards. Nick Mrphy also caught a touchdown pass, and the Saints scoring was capped when Mike Mensing hit Tyler Meany from 11 yards out in the fourth quarter.
With so many receivers catching so many passes, it was difficult to realize that Thompson, a 6-foot-3 sophomore from Buffalo, MN., had racked up his own record. Thompson’s two touchdown passes were among 10 catches he had for the game, for a school-record 297 yards. Many of his catches were in congestion, but he also proved he could outrun the coverage with his 71-yard play, and when he hooked up again with Stepka for a 31-yard touchdown in the third quarter.
“Hunter was a tailback in high school, and he’s a great athlete,” said Ramler, the Saints second-year coach. “He also ran track and played basketball. But I’ve never seen anyone as wide-open as he was on that 71-yard touchdown. He had 200 yards receiving in the first half.”
Ramler also has stressed that the Saints defense has been the understated backbone of his team’s success all season, and while Westminster quarterback Eain Roberts caught the Saints by surprise a couple of times in the first half, it provided a good teaching moment or two.
“Westminster came out hard and challenged our defense, so we saw some things we have to do better,” said Ramler.
Northwestern, beaten two weeks earlier by the Saints, is second in the UMAC at 7-1, and defeated Greenville 21-19 last Saturday. The Saints had to beat Greenville to win the title, so Ramler is aware of how tough a game awaits the Saints Saturday. The outright UMAC crown, however, also awaits the Saints.

UMD Challenges Omaha, Hockey Parity

It may be that there is not a single dominant team in college hockey this season.
UMD has taken a turn at trying to be No. 1 in the early going, after being tabbed by the NCHC coaches as preseason favorite, but a pair of ties at Notre Dame and last weekend’s split against Massachusetts-Lowell dropped the Bulldogs.
Nebraska-Omaha moved up smartly, with a 6-0 record, and was in position to assume the top spot, right up until last weekend, when Western Michigan knocked off the Mavericks, twice.
With all the teams rated highly in the NCHC, and all the NCHC teams ranked high among the national rankings, Western Michigan and St. Cloud State have not been among them. However, that may be about to change. With league play just starting, not only did Western Michigan stun Omaha twice, but St. Cloud State knocked off Miami of Ohio twice. So those two teams -- St. Cloud and Western Michigan -- stand at the top of the NCHC standings.
The Bulldogs will find out whether parity around the country is working for or against them this weekend, when they go to Omaha to take on the Mavericks in an NCHC series.
Last weekend, the Bulldogs looked tough enough when they beat Mass-Lowell 2-1 in a tense, close-checking chess match at AMSOIL Arena. The teams were virtually mirror images of each other, with quick, opportunistic forwards, solid and agile defensemen, and outstanding goaltending. The scoreless game was punctured when Andy Welinski drilled a screened slap shot from the right point that caught the far edge in the second period. After Ryan Dmowski tied it midway through the session, Dom Toninato knocked in a rebound at the left edge of the crease for a power-play goal that stood up as the winner.
When asked about the power play, UMD coach Scott Sandelin didn’t conceal his sarcasm when he said: “Shocking that you can score when you shoot, and get the rebound.”
UMD outshot Lowell 11-4 in the scoreless first period, and 40-27 for the game, although the River Hawks seemed to gain momentum as the third period wore on, with both teams getting 11 shots without success. “They make it very difficult,” said Sandelin. “You have to stay with it, because both teams have good goalies. We’ve got to get the puck up the ice better.”
Coming off two 3-3 ties at Notre Dame, Toninato said it was a valuable victory. “We needed it, because it’s a huge nonconference win,” said Toninato.
The next night, however, Lowell’s late-building momentum Friday carried over, and the River Hawks put away the Bulldogs 6-3 with a strong third period.
The NCHC’s parity knows no bounds, if you consider Mass-Lowell, and Notre Dame. Omaha, meanwhile, inflicted two defeats on Minnesota State-Mankato earlier, while Bemidji State has spoken up for the WCHA with strong performances to beat UMD and tie North Dakota in one of two games.
And it carries over to the NHL, which might have the most parity of any pro sports league. Just look at the Minnesota Wild division, where there are no such thing as upsets anymore.

Resch In Rafters

   When the Resch family moved from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, to the province’s “big city” of Regina, young Glenn Resch was an eager goaltending prospect who was encouraged by the coach of the Regina Pats Western Canada Major Junior team to stay in town, make the team, and go on to the NHL.
“But my mom, who never had travelled much, said, ‘You’re going to college in Duluth,’ ” recalled Resch. “I was only 17 when I came to UMD. I wasn’t good enough to make the Pats, but my mom gave me good advice. When she said something, that’s what happened. I wasn’t very big, and I played football, but I was getting beat up and I said I was quitting. My mom said no, that I made the commitment to play, and she made me play the whole year.”
Resch said he treasures his time spent at UMD, because he learned a lot, on the ice and off, and it was an excellent transition to a great pro career in the NHL.
It apparently was mainly because of the 14 years he spent in the NHL – mostly with the New York Islanders, where he helped win the Stanley Cup in 1980 -- that Resch was honored before Friday’s game by having his No. 1 jersey retired by UMD.
Resch gained the nickname Chico Resch with the Islanders, and went on to an impressive career as a television color commentator too. But he remains his own biggest critic.
“I was a little above average when I played at UMD,” said Resch, who lives in Brainerd these days. “There were no videos back then, and I was OK. I learned how to think while I was at UMD, and I’m so thankful for the time I spent there because it changed the way I saw the world.
“People in Duluth give you a lot of confidence, and they really care about you as a person. Older guys, like Huffer Christiansen and Bob Hill, came around and gave you a lot of encouragement.”
Resch was UMD’s No. 1 goaltender for three seasons, in the late 1960s, when freshmen couldn’t play, so he watched Christiansen play his senior year as a magical centerman. The Bulldogs weren’t very strong in those days, and his record was 5-19 with a 4.93 goals-against record and an .862 save percentage in 1968-69; 12-12-1 with 3.88 GA and .876 in 1969-70; and 11-14-1 with 4.23 and .887 in 1970-71.
Those numbers don’t challenge for the top 10 in UMD annals of goaltenders like Alex Stalock, Rick Heinz, Brant Nicklin, Bob Mason, Rick Kosti and others, but nobody will quarrel with the PR-motivation to hoist the popular Resch’s number to the rafters, alongside Christiansen, Bill Watson, and Brett Hull.
Resch said he intends to make regular trips back to Duluth from Brainerd, but after being introduced on the ice for an emotional ceremony Friday night, he couldn’t stay for last Saturday’s second game. “I had to get back home, where we gave out 960 pieces of candy for Halloween,” Resch said.