Lindenwood football (0-1) opened up its 2025 season on Thursday with a trip up to St. Paul, Minnesota, to play the St. Thomas Tommies (1-0) of the Pioneer League.
It was a tale of two halves for the Lions, who were able to move the ball at will in the first half but only had seven points to show for it at the break and just couldn’t keep up with the Tommies in the second half as it seemed like that anything that could go wrong went wrong as they ended up falling 35-13.
The Tommies got their revenge on the Lions in a big way in 2025 after suffering a 64-0 shellacking to Lindenwood in 2024.
Nate Glantz returned under center for the Lions for his second year as the starting quarterback and is the only returning starting QB in the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC). Glantz shined in the loss, completing 18 passes on 29 attempts for 318 yards and a score.
It was a balanced rushing attack for Lindenwood, led by Steve Hall, who accumulated 70 yards on the ground on 14 carries, while junior running back Jared Rhods rushed for 40 yards and a touchdown behind Hall.
Drew Krobath led the Lions in receiving, hauling in five passes for 128 yards, while John Anthony and Darrin Fugitt had four receptions. Anthony had the only touchdown catch for the Lions, hauling in a 45-yard pass from Glantz over the middle, a part of the 90 receiving yards Anthony had in the game.
Kicker Will Graham, getting his first action of his career in a Lion uniform after sitting behind Logan Seibert, who had been the Lindenwood starting kicker for four years, struggled, missing all three of his field goal opportunities from 38, 28 and 28 yards out as well only converting one of his two PATs.
St. Thomas had their way on the ground with the Lions defense tallying 275 rushing yards in the game led by sophomore running back Joseph Koch who had 154 yards on 18 carries and a touchdown. Stefano Giovannelli and Zander Rockow each also punched in a rushing score and led the Tommies offense who outscored Lindenwood 28-6 in the second half.
Lindenwood got the ball first to start the game and used a huge 41-yard pass from Glantz to Krowbath to put the Lions in opponent territory before the Tommie defense walled up and got a huge sack of Pops Battle, who had entered after Glantz was knocked out with an injury, for eight yards forcing a fourth down. Graham would come out for his first ever field goal attempt of his career and miss it wide left.
The Lindenwood defense would quickly force a punt before the offense used another big pass play, this time a 37-yard pass from Glantz to Fugitt and runs of 16 and 12 yards from Hall to get a first and goal from the Tommie nine-yard line. But, once again the Tommie defense tucked their ears back and stood up the Lions forcing another Graham attempt, this one from 28 yards, but once again Graham couldn’t connect.
Graham would miss his third field goal of the first half on the Lions third drive again from 28 yards after the Lions got stood up at the St. Thomas 15 yard line.
St. Thomas finally broke the scoreless tie with 5:13 remaining in the second quarter after Andy Peters hit Patrick Wagner for a 19-yard touchdown pass to put the Tommies up 7-0. Peters also hit Giovannelli earlier in the drive for 44 yards to light the spark.
Lindenwood would respond however, as once again one big pass play from Glantz hit Krowbath deep down the left side for 40 yards, setting the Lions up first-and-goal at the Tommie one yard line. Finally, on second and goal from the one, Rhodes would punch it in, leaping into the endzone to tie the game at 7-7.
St. Thomas would miss a 53 yard field goal at the end of the first half as both teams trotted into the locker rooms deadlocked at 7-7.
After a first half that saw Lindenwood leave plenty of chances on the board the Tommies would come out red hot in the second half needing just seven plays to motor down the field and take a 14-7 lead on a Giovannelli eight yard touchdown run.
Lindenwood would once again respond as they would only need three plays of their own to get back into the endzone as Glantz would hit a streaking Anthony in the middle of the field and he shook free from a Tommie defender and took it 45 yards to the house for the score. Graham would miss the ensuing extra point resulting in Lindenwood still trailing 14-13.
St. Thomas would extend their lead to eight with 8:44 to go in the third quarter when Peters hit JaShawn Todd for a 16-yard touchdown putting the Tommies up 21-13.
St. Thomas would put up two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter to cruise to a 35-13 victory as the Tommie defense held Lindenwood to no points, two punts, a fumble and a turnover on downs after the touchdown to begin the second half.
Lindenwood will be back on the road for week two as they head out to east to take on the Appalachian State Mountaineers of the Sun Belt League, in their second ever matchup against an FBS opponent. Kickoff will come from Boone, North Carolina on Saturday, Sept. 6, at 3:30 pm eastern (2:30 p.m. central) streaming exclusively on ESPN+.
