A 50-degree sunny day at the Sellick Bowl saw the football team dominate St. Thomas, winning 41-14. With just one conference loss each prior to today’s contest, the winner was guaranteed to stay tied for the Pioneer Football League (PFL) lead with Dayton, while the loser would face an uphill climb to stay in the race.
On their opening drive, the Bulldogs drove down the field all the way to the Tommies’ 27-yard line before being held to a 44-yard field goal from first-year kicker Evan Windley.
St. Thomas’s opening possession was run-heavy. Sophomore quarterback Nick Peipert ran for 44 yards on the drive — including a 38-yard scamper to put the Tommies in the red zone. A 10-yard completion from Peipert to junior wide receiver Bryan Domino and an offsides call on senior defensive lineman Jayden Norris set up a Peipert one-yard touchdown to put St. Thomas up 7-3 midway through the first quarter.
A pair of stalled drives by each team and a 23-yard punt by junior kicker Aiden Macke set up the Bulldogs at their own 43-yard line. Following rushes from junior quarterback Gabe Passini, graduate running back Desmin Jackson turned an outside handoff into a 19-yard touchdown run to put the Dawgs back in front with a 10-7 lead.
After a Tommies punt, the Bulldogs began the drive at their own 25-yard-line. On third-and-2 from Butler’s 33-yard line, sophomore running back Michael Dellumo ran up the middle, cut left and was off to the races as he picked up his third touchdown of the season. The 67-yard run is the longest of the season for Dellumo.
Another St. Thomas three-and-out gave Butler one more opportunity to pad its lead before halftime. Aided by a kick-catch interference and a facemask call against St. Thomas, the Bulldogs got down to the 14-yard line. However, the drive stalled there before Janki converted a 32-yard field goal to push the margin to 13.
With sophomore Jack Wallace in at quarterback, the Tommies got to their own 42-yard line with six seconds left in the half before senior defensive lineman Luke Green forced a fumble recovered by sophomore defensive end Okemedi Eze. This marked the tenth fumble recovery for Butler this season — the most in the PFL.
On the second play of the second half, Eze dropped back into coverage and picked off junior quarterback Anthony Policare at the Tommies’ 23-yard line. The Dawgs wasted no time extending their lead as Passini found senior wide receiver Nick Munson for a walk-in touchdown, giving the Dawgs a 27-7 advantage.
Eze credited the coaching staff for giving him opportunities to step up defensively.
“I [thought], ‘Great play call by our coaches,’” Eze said. “Because I’m a [defensive] lineman, I really don’t drop much, but I dropped that play and the [quarterback] threw it right to me. It was amazing. I haven’t had interceptions in a while, and then to get onto the bench, start celebrating and [the] crowd goes crazy [for the] touchdown, I was just full of emotion.”
Following a pair of St. Thomas punts and a turnover on downs from Butler, the Tommies orchestrated a nine-play, 77-yard drive that ended with a nine-yard touchdown run from Policare to cut the deficit to 13 with three minutes left in the third quarter. A quick three-and-out for the Bulldog offense ensured that the Tommies would possess the ball again before the end of the third quarter.
However, senior linebacker Jackson Stratton batted down a Policare pass on fourth down to open up the final frame and Passini delivered a 29-yard pass right into the arms of senior wide receiver Michael Nix to extend the Bulldog lead to 20. Following another three-and-out forced by the defense, Dellumo found a crease and ran for another touchdown, this time from 56 yards out.
On just eight carries, Dellumo rushed for 143 yards and two touchdowns. He highlighted how the different preparation for multiple defensive looks helped him achieve a career day, as did the great blocking from his teammates.
“Going into this week, we honestly [had] more than more prep to do than we have in previous weeks,” Dellumo said. “They showed a lot of different fronts and showed a lot of different things with all their linebackers and D-line. The O-line [executed] on both of my touchdown runs, the hole split wide open and it was just up to me to run it home. All credit to my O-line [and] the receivers blocking their tails off. It was an awesome day.”
Butler forced another fumble with three minutes remaining, recovered by junior linebacker Ben Brandenburg. While the Dawgs turned the ball over on downs with just over a minute remaining, the team’s performance on both sides of the ball was more than enough to secure the important victory.
Head coach Kevin Lynch commended his team’s ability to play hard no matter the week or opponent.
“I really like working with this team,” Lynch said. “They know how to work. They have fun together, you can tell they like playing and they like being around each other. When you get to this point of the year, even when you have a really good team, sometimes teams can get burned out, and I don’t feel that with this team. I think this team could play 365 days.”
With the loss, St. Thomas drops to 7-3 overall and 4-2 in the PFL. Now at 5-1 in the conference and 8-2 on the season, Butler looks to ride the momentum of three consecutive victories when it travels to take on the Marist Red Foxes at noon on Nov. 14.