JOLIET, Ill. --- The NAIA No. 25-ranked University of St. Francis football team put itself in a hole early and could never recover as University of Saint Francis' (Ind.) first two scores came off Saint miscues and the Cougars built a 24-0 advantage 16:10 into the contest en route to a 52-14 victory on Busey Bank Field at Joliet Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon.  For the game, Saint Francis (Ind.) turned three Saint turnovers into 17 points in the season opener for both clubs.

Saint Francis turned a sack into a five-yard fumble recovery and a touchdown by Joey Schaufelbe on the Saints' third play from scrimmage.  Two plays later, USF quarterback Sam Tumilty tossed an interception and Saint Francis turned that into another three points just seven minutes into the affair.

The Saints attempted to get back in the game with their 11-play, 90-yard touchdown drive to open the second half.  The nearly-seven minute drive was capped off by Tumilty's nine-yard run and made it a 24-7 game.

Saint Francis, however, responded with the next 28 more points before USF countered with another Tumilty touchdown in the closing two minutes of the game.

The guests finished the afternoon with just shy of 500 total yards of offense (498) with 334 of those coming through the air.  Heath Simmons led a three-quarterback contingent that completed 26-of-34 pass attempts.  He went 24-for-32 for 260 yards and three touchdowns.  His two backups also tossed touchdown passes in their only attempts.

The trio threw to 10 different receivers with five of them netting at least three receptions, including Dawan Langston (3 recp., 95 yards), who had a 70-yard touchdown reception.

Tumilty completed 14 of his 21 attempts for 182 yards, but threw two interceptions that accounted for 10 Cougar points.  He also was sacked six times for 32 yards.

His top two receivers were Daniel Goetsch (3 recp., 54 yards) and Liam Eldridge (4-50).

On the ground, Tumilty rushed 33 times for a game-high 105 yards.

Notes: Tumilty's 105-yard rushing afternoon marked his fifth straight 100-plus yard effort on the ground and eighth in ten career games as a Saint … His older brother, Scott, also topped the team's charts on Saturday with his 15 tackles, including nine solos … Scott Tumilty also produced a 51-yard kickoff return on Saturday as part of a three-return, 97-yard game … The Saints held a 38:19-21:41 time of possession advantage, but were outgained 498-323 … Saint Francis (Ind.) converted 60 percent of its third-down plays, while the Saints were a perfect 3-for-3 on fourth down … USF did not collect its initial first down until after the Cougars had built their early 24-0 advantage, about 20 minutes into the contest.  The Saints did, however, finish with 18 first downs on the day to Saint Francis' 25 … The task gets no easier next week when the Saints travel to Indianapolis to take on NAIA No. 5 Marian University (Ind.).       

Links to live coverage can be found at gofightingsaints.com/coverage. You can also keep up with everything happening around USF Athletics on Twitter @USFSaints.