The potent offense of Gustavus Adolphus, led by all-conference quarterback Joe Thorvig and running back Andy Traetow, scored early in the contest and never looked back as they beat Macalester 47-21 last Saturday. Thorvig tossed five first half touchdown passes to four different receivers and his back-up Tim Nesvig added another in the middle of the fourth quarter. The Gusties move to 6-3 on the year and 5-3 in the MIAC and the Scots fall to 1-8 on the year and 1-7 in the MIAC.
Gustavus put together a scoring drive on their first possession of the contest, capped by a nine-yard touchdown pass from Thorvig to receiver Ryan Hoag. The Scots had negative yardage on their first possession and were forced to punt early, giving the Gusties the ball at midfeld. From there they would need only one play to cross the goal line again on a 50-yard rush from Traetow. Macalester got the opportunity they needed on the Gusties next drive when Justin Luehman ’05 picked off a Thorvig pass. Unfortunately, the Scots were only able to drive to the Gustavus 22-yard line where they turned the ball over on downs. The Gusties took the ball 78 yards in the other direction to score once again when Thorvig tossed a 64-yard touchdown pass to Chris Greavu to make the score 21-0.
The second quarter brought more scoring for the Gusties and more missed opportunites for the Scots. Forced to punt from the back of the own endzone early in the second quarter, the Scots were faced with defending a very short field. Thorvig and Traetow proved to be too much for the Scots’ defense again as Hoag caught his second touchdown pass of the day to make the score 28-0. The Scots put together a solid drive late in the half, highlighted by a 30-yard pass from quarterback Adam Heathcote ’04 to receiver Ty O’Connell ’02. David Krueger ’04 crossed the goal line from one yard out to make the score 28-7. Thorvig was able to orchestrate two more drives before the half, one capped by a 4-yard touchdown pass to Nick Teigland and one capped by an 18-yard touchdown pass to Mike Gahlon. The two teams retired to the locker rooms with the scoreboard reading 41-7 in favor of the Gusties.
Neither team was able to put up any points in the third quarter, but less than a minute into the fourth quarter O’Connell caught a 14-yard touchdown pass from Heathcote to make the score 41-14. The Gusties answered once again a few minute later with a 48-yard touchdown pass from Nesvig to Adam Nelson to up their point total to 47. On the next Gustavus possession, Marshall Mullenbach ’03 picked off his sixth pass of the season and took it 40 yards in the other direction before he was forced out of bounds. Running back Grant Heuett ’02 punched it in for the game’s final score from 3 yards out to make the score 47-21.
On offense, Macalester Athlete of the Week O’Connell finished with nine catches for 137 yards and is now the school record-holder for receptions in a season with 73. A year ago, David Schumacher set the mark with 69. With 831 receiving yards through nine games, O’Connell needs just 30 to break the mark of 860 set by Elmer Bailey in 1975. Krueger had another productive game as he finished with 63 yards on 13 carries with an average of 4.8 yards per carry.
The defense was led by linebacker Nick Kraemer ’03 again this week. He finished with 9.5 tackles (seven solos and five assists) and a forced fumble. Brett Cramer ’03 had the Scots’ lone sack for the contest.
The Scots finish their season next week at home as they take on the Pipers from Hamline. It will be the 102nd meeting between the two teams, which makes it the oldest rivalry in the state on Minnesota. Kickoff is 1 p.m. at Macalester Stadium.