ST. PAUL -- Saint John's quarterback Jackson Erdman failed to reach the lofty number of passing yards he racked up a year ago in the win over St. Thomas.
But he came close on Saturday, and it was more than enough for the Johnnies, and too much for the Tommies.
Erdman threw for 456 yards and three scores as the Saint John's (6-0) wiped out an early two-touchdown deficit and dominated its arch-rival 38-20 at Allianz Field in St. Paul.
A year ago, Erdman, a transfer from Penn State who played prep football at Rosemount, had 470 passing yards to beat the Tommies.
Kai Barber ran for 80 yards and two touchdowns, while the Saint John's defense came up with a key stop deep in Johnnie territory in the fourth quarter to preserve the win in the 89th meeting between the Division III arch-rivals.
With the win, the unbeaten Johnnies remain ranked fourth in the D3football.com poll, while the Tommies (4-2) dropped seven spots to number 18.
Despite falling behind early, the Johnnies out-gained the Tommies 563 to 388 in total yards in the first American football game at Allianz Field.
Josh Parks ran for 147 yards and two touchdowns for St. Thomas, who also got a six-yard touchdown pass from Tommy Dolan to Grant Slavik.
After the game, the Johnnies raised the Holy Grail traveling trophy, which for some reason was not presented to the team following last year's win and remained in a trophy case on the St. Thomas campus.
The crowd at the new soccer home of Minnesota United was announced as 19,508, yet another large gathering for one of the country's top small-college football rivalries that appears to be nearing an end.
St. Thomas was expelled from the Division III MIAC for what school presidents called athletic competitive parity, and the Tommies are looking into joining a D-I conference.
Saturday's win was the Johnnies' 22nd straight in regular season play, with 19 against conference foes.
Their last regular season loss was in 2017 when they fell to St. Thomas at Target Field.