The Valparaiso University football team never stopped battling.

The Beacons went toe-to-toe with the defending Pioneer Football League champion, the preseason favorite to win the league and this year’s PFL runner-up in Saturday afternoon’s season finale in St. Paul, Minn., only to see host St. Thomas escape with a 16-10 victory, narrowly keeping the nation’s longest home winning streak intact by recording their 31^st straight home win. The determination that fans have come to expect from the Valpo football program was on display yet again, but a season that was filled with one-score games ended with the Brown & Gold on the wrong side of another battle that could have gone either way.

How It Happened

• St. Thomas elected to receive the opening kickoff after winning the toss, and wasted little time in connecting on the game’s first big play. A 50-yard pass completion on the first play from scrimmage set up an eventual 29-yard field goal to give the guests the early edge.
• After the opening drive resulted in a field goal for the Tommies, each team punted twice before the first quarter came to an end. Evan Matthes (Reston, Va. / South Lake [West Virginia]) had boots of 48 and 47 yards before pinning the Tommies at their own three after a 43-yarder early in the second stanza. He again sent one inside the 10 with a 42 yarder to cap a sequence where each of Valpo’s first four drives resulted in punts.
• Despite being pinned deep by Matthes, the hosts put together a touchdown drive, going 93 yards on eight plays including a 30-yard TD pass to make it 10-0.
• After St. Thomas assembled its best drive of the half, Valpo followed suit. Quarterback Rowan Keefe (Park Ridge, Ill. / Maine South) got in a rhythm with three straight completions in the middle of the drive, all of 10 yards or more, eventually setting up a 38-yard field goal try that Ryan Hawk (Columbus, Ohio / Bishop Hartley) sent through the uprights.
• Valpo notched an interception on the final play of the first half as Owen Cherry (LaGrange, Ill. / Lyons Township) grabbed a Cherry pick to send the game to the break at 10-3.
• Valpo got a big stop on fourth-and-7 at the Valpo 30 as St. Thomas turned it over on downs with 7:57 left in the third. That prompted a game-tying touchdown drive that featured a pair of big catches by Solomon Davis (Brighton, Tenn. / Brighton) and one from Chris Gundy (Smithfield, Va. / Smithfield). Davis hauled in the 22-yard grab for the score to make it 10-10 at 3:33 in the third.
• Several big runs by Hope Adebayo highlighted a drive where St. Thomas found the end zone on a nine-yard rush by Landon Reed on the first play of the fourth quarter. The PAT failed, but the Tommies still grabbed a 16-10 advantage.
• Valpo pulled out all the stops on its first drive of the fourth quarter. Matthes completed a 19-yard pass to Wade Abrams (Fox River Grove, Ill. / Cary-Grove) on a fake punt on fourth-and-8 from Valpo’s own 22-yard line to extend the drive. Another big play was a 16-yard catch by Brandon Jimenez (Suffern, N.Y. / Don Bosco Prep [Albany]) on third-and-9 from the Valpo 42.
• A key personal foul penalty eventually set Valpo behind the sticks, and a promising drive was extinguished at the St. Thomas 25 on a turnover on downs with 8:35 on the clock.
• The Tommies ran clock by moving the chains several times, but eventually punted it away and allowed Valpo to take over on its own 10 with 2:55 on the clock, needing 90 yards to score a go-ahead touchdown.
• Valpo did not pick up a first down on the ensuing drive, eventually turning it over on downs and setting up victory formation for the hosts.

Inside the Game

• Davis hauled in eight catches for 82 yards and one touchdown. The TD was his sixth receiving this season, the 10^th receiving of his career and his 11^th career total score including one rushing TD.
• Hawk’s 38 yarder was his fourth make in seven chances this season.
• Matthes had five punts for 229 yards, averaging 45.8 yards per punt and sending three inside the 20. He finished the season with a punting average of 43.2, tied for third in program history.
• Cherry’s interception was the first of his career.
• Redshirt senior Evan Annis (Hilliard, Ohio / Hilliard Davidson) posted a team-high nine tackles, while Colin Graves (Seattle, Wash. / Bishop Blanchet) and Mohamed Kamara (Kalamazoo, Mich. / Kalamazoo Central [Hope]) had eight stops apiece.
• Valpo boasted six tackles for loss and three sacks.
• The Beacons were outgained 296-236. The teams were even in the turnover battle, and Valpo finished the season without winning the turnover battle in any game this year.
• Mann ran for 42 yards on 11 carries, while Keefe finished the game at 13-of-25 passing for 135 yards and one score.
• Seven of Valpo’s 11 games this season were one-score affairs. Seven of the eight PFL games were decided by 10 points or fewer and six of them were one-score affairs. Valpo finished 3-8 overall and 2-6 in PFL play but five of the six PFL losses were one-score games.
• A Valpo win would have represented the program’s longest winning streak since 2003 and the first time the Beacons had won the final three league games of a season since 1971.