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October 14, 2007

Johnnies rout Gusties 40-0

Gagliardi picks up 450th career victory

By Chris Jagerson

ST PETER — As the third-ranked team in the nation, St. John’s did everything it was supposed to — and even a little more — to give legendary coach John Gagliardi his 450th win in Saturday’s Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference football game against Gustavus.

Gagliardi’s quarterback, Alex Kofoed, passed for 332 yards and five touchdowns, and the defense shut out the high-powered Gusties as the Johnnies won 40-0 on Gustavus’ homecoming at Hollingsworth Field.

“He comes through when you really need him,” Gagliardi said of his quarterback. “He’s a four-year guy and he really plays like it. He has won a lot of games for us.”

Gagliardi has won plenty of games in his 55 years as coach of the Johnnies and added another win Saturday to his legacy as the winningest coach in the history of college football.

St. John’s dominated in total offense, time of possession and field position as the Johnnies outgained the Gusties 508-133, held the ball for nearly 38 minutes and started seven of eight drives in Gustavus’ territory during a stretch in the second and third quarters.

“We didn’t execute well,” Gustavus quarterback Jordan Stolp said. “There were some misreads and poor execution. When you don’t execute, you don’t put points on the board and don’t put drives together.”

St. John’s scored on three of its first four possessions as Kofoed found Aaron Blackmore from 11 yards out just 1:53 into the game and then hooked up with Brian Weber on a diving grab in the back-right corner of the end zone for a 16-yard score on its next possession.

Kofoed found Brett Saladin for a pair of touchdowns from 17- and 21-yards out in the second quarter. A Jeff Schnobrich 27-yard touchdown run late in the second quarter put St. John’s up 33-0 at halftime.

The game was a matchup of Gustavus’ second-ranked passing game in the MIAC against St. John’s top-ranked defense in the conference.

Stolp, coming in averaging 297 yards passing per game, was just 7 of 23 for 69 yards with two interceptions.

“It was frustrating,” Stolp said. “They dropped guys into coverage and then we tried to get our back out in front of the line to dump it to him, but when we did that their linebackers were right there. It was almost like they knew what we were going to do.”

The Johnnies frequently dropped six and seven defenders into coverage once they got ahead and Gustavus was forced into passing.

“(Gustavus) throws the ball pretty good,” Gagliardi said. “(Stolp) throws the ball pretty well, so you’d better defend him. I don’t think they run it as well as they throw it, so we had to defend the pass.”

Kofoed came out for the first possession of the second half and led a scoring drive that resulted in a 13-yard touchdown pass to Blackmore. Kofoed was then relieved of his duties.

Gustavus had just seven first downs and went two of 13 on third downs, compared to 28 first downs and 10 of 19 on thirds downs for St. John’s (7-0, 5-0 in the MIAC).

The Gusties (3-3, 2-3) play Saturday at home against Macalester.

“Obviously I’m not going to take a whole lot out of this with it being 40-0,” Stolp said. “Hopefully we can look at film and find some things we did well. ... We’ve still got four more games and it’s nice to know there’s four more chances to go out there and play.”

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