The 10,000 fans who packed O’Shaughnessy Stadium in St. Paul Saturday may have thought they would see a close game between two old rivals. It didn't happen. St. Thomas clobbered St. John's 63-7, led by five Dakota Tracy touchdown passes.

The Tommies football team has lost only once since the start of the 2010 season, and that was a quarterfinal playoff loss last year to Bethel. St. Thomas hopes to avoid repeating history when it takes on St. John Fisher in St. Paul.

St. Thomas head football coach Glenn Caruso was named the Liberty Mutual National Coach of the Year for Division III on Thursday. It's the second straight season Caruso has won the award. In just four years he has led St. Thomas to two MIAC championships and compiled a 43-7 record.

The Catholic St. John's University in Collegeville announced Michael Hemesath as the institution's first full-time lay president. Hemesath is an economics professor at Carleton College and a 1981 graduate of St. John's. The Rev. Robert Koopmann announced he will step down at the end of this academic year.

To date, all the presidents of St. John's University have come from the adjacent Abbey. That may change now that the university has hired a search firm to find the successor to the Reverend Robert Koopman.

Saying the allegations must first be investigated, a St. John's Abbey spokesman won't comment on the central claim in a new lawsuit that accuses abbey officials of allowing a member to continue teaching long after he was accused of sexual abuse. A St. John's prep student claims in a suit filed in Stearns County that he was abused by the Rev. Allen Tarlton in the 1980s.

A lawsuit filed by a former student claims St. John's Abbey knew of sexual abuse allegations against a priest but allowed him to continue teaching for another 32 years. The plaintiff says he was sexually abused by the Rev. Allen Tarlton while attending prep school in the 1980's. He says St. John's knew of abuse allegations against Tarlton as far back as the 1950's.

At the St. Thomas/St. John's football game on Saturday, students held up a big sign with an invitation to the dance for the Minnesota senator. She said she found it "pretty funny." Meanwhile, it was game number 600 for St. John's coach John Gagliardi.