St. Thomas isn’t accustomed to losing home openers, or losing home games at all, but the University of Sioux Falls Cougars handed the Tommies a 34-13 loss Thursday night at O’Shaughnessy Stadium that ended a couple lengthy Tommies streaks.

It’s St. Thomas’ first loss in a regular season home game since 2014, a span of 42 games that spanned the end of the Tommies Division-III era and ran through their first three seasons in Division I.

It’s their first home loss of any sort since the 2016 postseason, a run of 31 games that stood as the longest active streak in any level of college football.

It’s also the first time in 16 tries an opponent has beaten a Glenn Caruso-coached Tommies team in an opener in St. Paul. Caruso’s teams had been 15-0 in season openers at home.

Click the video box to watch KSTP Sports’ first half highlights from the University of Sioux Falls at St. Thomas

Things couldn’t have started much better for the Tommies. A Caleb Sandstrom interception on their first defensive possession set up a 25-yard Tak Tateoka-to-Jake Wildermuth touchdown that had the Tommies up 7-0 less than two minutes into the game.

From there, the Tommies offense became stuck in the mud.

Sioux Falls took the lead late in the first quarter on a bizarre play that saw St. Thomas defenders pry the ball loose from Sioux Falls’ running back right at the goal line, but the ball popped out well clear of the pile-up, landing right at the feet of Cougars quarterback Camden Dean, who ran it into the endzone.

The kicked a second-quarter field goal to lead 11-7 at halftime before overpowering the Tommies in the second half by a 25-6 margin.

Trailing 18-7 in the third, the Tommies cut the lead to 18-13 with a defensive touchdown on a play that saw Sioux Falls fumble at their own goal line. But the Cougars returned St. Thomas’ two-point conversion try the length of the field to go push their lead back to 20-13.

The Cougars added two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter to seal the win.

Sioux Falls outgained St. Thomas 393-172 in the game. The margin was 403-104 before each team’s final possessions, which came after USF had taken a three touchdown lead with 3:08 left in the game.

Sioux Falls had 24 first downs to the Tommies’ 8 with half the Tommies first downs coming on their final garbage-time possession.

St Thomas was 1-for-13 on third downs compared to Sioux Falls’ 10-for-20 conversion rate leading to a 40:30 to 19:30 disparity in time of possession

After finishing last season’s 3-8 campaign with five consecutive losses, Sioux Falls was picked to finish in the bottom half of the Division II Northern Sun Conference this season.

St. Thomas will need to regroup quickly as a tough date with Northern Iowa looms next in St. Paul on Saturday, September 7th.

[Edit: The initial version of this story stated the Tommies overall home win streak was 10 years and 31 games. Correctly, the regular season win streak is 10 years and 42 games, while the overall home win streak was eight years and 31 games.]

===GAME RECAP BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS===

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Division II-member Sioux Falls got two rushing touchdowns from Dylan Rudningen and the Cougars shut down the St. Thomas-Minnesota offense in a 34-13 season-opening win on Thursday night.

The Tommies’ loss brought their nation-long 31-game home winning streak to an end.

The Cougars, known for their four NAIA national championships before moving to Division II in 2012, outgained St. Thomas 393-172 in total offense. The Tommies had only three first downs through three quarters and were 1 for 13 on third down for the game.

Sioux Falls took an 11-7 lead at halftime, after Camden Dean’s 1-yard run plus a two-point conversion and a 30-yard field goal by Nick Hernandez.

The Cougars pushed their lead to 18-7 when Matt Grzybowski ran 3 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter. St. Thomas got within 18-13 on a strip sack and 5-yard fumble return by C.J. Warren to make it 18-13 but the Cougars’ Brendan Holt recovered a fumble on the two-point try and returned it 90 yards for a defensive two-point conversion.

Sioux Falls added Rudningen’s two short touchdown runs to put the game away in the fourth quarter. He finished with 67 yards on 23 carries.

Dean completed 17 of 29 passes for 189 yards and was intercepted once.

Two St. Thomas quarterbacks combined to go 14 of 35 for 150 yards with a touchdown and in interception.

The Tommies took an early 7-0 lead when an interception by Branden Smith set up a 25-yard touchdown pass from Tak Tateoka to Jacob Wildermuth.