Jerry Kaminski Throws Five Touchdowns as North Dakota Rolls St. Thomas
Five touchdown passes in 29 attempts. Jerry Kaminski's day was done before anyone had to think about a fourth quarter, and North Dakota beat St. Thomas 62-26 without ever trailing.
It started with a defensive score. Avery Dixon returned an interception 34 yards for a touchdown at the 14:10 mark of the first quarter, and North Dakota never gave the lead back. Kaminski then threw to Korey Tai from 8 yards, to Deng Deng from 6, to Mason South from 5, to Tai again from 11 and to Sam Strandell from 6 with 24 seconds left before the half. That made it 41-9 at the time, and 41-12 once Ben Hoiland kicked a field goal on the final play of the second quarter.
St. Thomas did not simply fold, which is the only reason this has a story. Malachi Boadi-Aboagye took an interception back 74 yards for a score (the extra point failed, which tells you the kind of day it was), and Patrick Wagner caught a 27-yard touchdown from Nick Peipert. Noah Long's 1-yard run with 11:21 left in the fourth made it 55-26. Javance Tupou'ata-Johnson answered with a 1-yard run at 8:52, and that closed the book.
The yardage was lopsided in a very particular way. North Dakota ran 42 times for 296 yards and finished with 529 total, against 293 for St. Thomas. Yet the Fighting Hawks also threw two interceptions and lost a fumble, and still won by 36. St. Thomas is 0-1; North Dakota is 2-0.
If you had Kaminski, you had a very good Saturday. His 41.6 Promethium points were 17.5 more than Tai, the next man on the list.