Earlier in the season, St. Thomas coach Glenn Caruso praised the way Amari Powell handled losing the starting quarterback job to transfer Andy Peters.

Saturday afternoon at O’Shaughnessy Stadium, that praise was extended to include Powell’s performance on the field in the Tommies’ 55-17 win over Valparaiso.

With Peters sidelined after taking a helmet-to-helmet hit during last week’s win at Davidson, Powell played the best game of his Tommies career. He completed 13 of 20 passes for 265 yards and three touchdowns while also rushing for 42 yards and a touchdown before being replaced by Ryan Jackson in the third quarter.

“He played magnificently,” Caruso said.

Powell, a senior from Valencia, Calif., has had trouble throwing the ball with accuracy in the part. But not on Saturday. He said it’s simply the result of continuing to try to get better.

“The motto is ‘Chop wood, carry water,’” Powell said. “So you continue to stacks days, you continue to put your head down and work. When my time was called I was ready to go.

“This was just pitch and catch, the way we’ve been playing throughout fall camp and practices,” Powell added. “Going out there and trusting the guy — trusting the guys in front of me — and just getting the ball into their hands.”

With the win, St. Thomas improved to 4-3 overall and 2-2 in the Pioneer Football League. Valparaiso (1-6, 0-3) came into the game having allowed an average of 47.7 points per game in its previous four losses. The Tommies, coming off a 57-13 win over Davidson, topped that number midway through the third quarter.

The Beacons scored a touchdown on the opening drive of the game, but the hosts responded with a touchdown of their own. They went on to dominate the rest of the first half, taking a 34-10 lead into the locker room at intermission.

Powell scored on a 20-yard run to give the St. Thomas a 24-7 lead midway through the second quarter. After a Valparaiso field goal, Powell connected on a 56-yard touchdown pass to JaShawn Todd.

Powell threw his third touchdown pass of the game early in the third quarter when he connected with Quentin Cobb-Butler in the end zone for a 41-10 St. Thomas lead.

It gave Cobb-Butler at least one touchdown catch in four consecutive games. He was impressed by Powell’s performance and happy to see him succeed.

“I was super proud of Amari,” Cobb-Butler said. “He’s a guy that shows up every day. Some guys, if they’re a (backup), they complain they’re not getting time. He just shows up every day and puts smiles on other guys’ faces, works his tail off.

“He is just quiet and just comes and plays like he just did, which was amazing.”

There’s a good chance that Peters will be ready to go next weekend when the Tommies travel to Stetson. Caruso said it was too soon to say whether Powell will get playing time should Peters start. But he expects Powell to contribute to the team regardless.

“The way he goes about his work is for everybody who’s attached to the program,” Caruso said. “It’s phenomenal to see a guy who can work that diligently and prepare himself event though he might not be in the roll that he dreamt about as a kid. But he is everything you could ever want. He’s a well-raised kid who understands his responsibility to others.”

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PHILADELPHIA – Young defensemen still learning their way in professional hockey need to play. Watching NHL games from the pressbox in a nice suit generally does nothing to help grow their game. That’s why the Minnesota Wild sent project David Jiricek down to Iowa last week, after he’d played in their season-opener at St. Louis, then had been a healthy scratch for three games at the NHL level.

But injuries are seemingly inevitable when you play defense at this level, and Jiricek’s stay in the land of Cyclones and Hawkeyes proved to be brief. On Saturday, prior to their road meeting with the Flyers, Wild general manager Bill Guerin got Jiricek on a plane from Charlotte – where Iowa had a road game on Saturday – to Philadelphia and the 21-year-old Czech was back on Minnesota’s blue line at Xfinity Mobile Arena.

The move came after veteran Wild defenseman Zach Bogosian suffered a lower body injury when he blocked a shot in Friday night’s 5-1 loss at Washington. Bogosian missed the third period, and Wild coach John Hynes listed him as day to day.

“David, I think he’s a good puck-moving defenseman and we’re looking for him to be able to move the puck,” Hynes said prior to the meeting with the Flyers. “I think his shot is a threat. When he gets in the offensive zone, he can deliver pucks for us.”

Looking to spark the team’s fourth line, the Wild also sent Liam Ohgren down to Iowa and recalled veteran forward Tyler Pitlick. Skating with Danila Yurov and Yakov Trenin on Saturday night in Philadelphia, Pitlick saw time with his ninth NHL organization, but his first with his home state team.

Pitlick, 33, played high school hockey for Centennial and skated one season of college hockey for Minnesota State in Mankato. Signed by the Wild in the off-season, he was one of the final cuts in training camp.

“He’s very similar to some of the guys we had last year when they came up…he’s a big body, he’s a physical player, he’s got good experience,” Hynes said. “Him, along with (Trenin) and Yurov in the middle could be a real strong line. All three guys are big, strong guys and they can skate.”

Saturday’s game was the 421st of Pitlick’s career, having previously played for the Oilers, Stars, Flyers, Coyotes, Flames, Canadiens, Blues and Rangers. He spent last season in the Bruins system, but did not get any NHL time with Boston. Pitlick’s uncle, Lance, was a Gophers standout and had a lengthy NHL career. Tyler Pitlick becomes the second member of his family to skate for the Wild, after his cousin Rem – a former Gophers captain – played 20 games for Minnesota in the 2021-22 season.

Ohgren, a first round draft pick by the Wild in 2022, had skated in Minnesota’s first five games this season without recording a point.

“We had a good conversation with (Ohgren) last night,” Hynes said. “We’re looking at where he’s playing and what he’s doing. It’s only really his second year in North America. So it’s going down to play, finding his game.”

Over it with Ovechkin

The goal and assist that Capitals star Alex Ovechkin recorded versus the Wild on Friday in Washington was the continuation of a trend over the past 20 years. Ovechkin now has 40 points in 26 career games versus Minnesota. His points-per-game average of 1.54 versus the Wild is Ovechkin’s highest against any NHL team.

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At the corner of Randolph and Fairview avenues in St. Paul on Saturday afternoon, dozens of people lined the streets, spilling into the intersection holding American flags and signs like the one that read, “This sign is not big enough for all the reasons I’m out here,” as part of the “No Kings” protests across the nation.

A steady cacophony of honking horns from motorists passing through the intersection was accompanied by cheers from people who gathered to protest the Trump administration. People beat on drums and toddlers banged on kitchen pans with utensils.

Some people dressed head-to-toe in costumes; others wore capes and crowns. Some, like Sarah Wilmer’s 11-year-old son, let his sign do the talking: “Kids Against Kings.”

Wilmer and Sarah Kathol, who brought her 8-year-old son, said that it was important for them to bring their children to Saturday’s rally.

“We came to show that we’re sick of the situation and we’re ready to show up,” Wilmer said.

Bringing her son “shows him that he can do something about it and be a part of the voice of the people saying, ‘We’re sick of this,’” Kathol said.

“My son has been learning more about what’s going on and has been feeling a lot of anxiety about it,” Kathol said. “I feel like this is a way to be doing something about it and that he will remember in the future.”

While many people cited different reasons for attending the rallies, there were some common themes.

Wilmer and Kathol, both of St. Paul, said that attending helped them feel less alone and created solidarity with likeminded people.

Wilmer and Kathol were some of the thousands who gathered across Minnesota on Saturday to protest the administration of President Donald Trump as part of the second round of “No Kings” protests this year. Nationwide, organizers expected millions to turn out for the demonstrations.

In addition to two St. Paul rallies, people gathered at the Commons, a park in downtown Minneapolis near U.S. Bank Stadium. Other rallies were held across the state, including in Duluth, Rochester, St. Cloud, Fargo-Moorhead, International Falls and other communities.

A St. Paul woman who went by the name “Lee” said she was there for many reasons, including trying to protect and keep Social Security benefits, Medicare benefits, ObamaCare and education funding.

“I’m a retired teacher and I think it’s horrible taking money away from education and the special-needs children and services, it’s just horrible,” she said. “We have to protest. I’m 75 years old; the last time I protested, I was 17 (against) the Vietnam War and for rights for African Americans. It’s just horrible that I’ve got to be out here now protesting for my rights as a citizen. We want no kings in America. Last time there was a king was 1776 and that’s why we had a revolution.

“We’ve just got to stop them,” Lee said. “We can’t have this anymore. We’ve got to put (Trump) out of office and all the people that are with him.”

The mood at the St. Paul intersection was joyful and hopeful, with most people smiling and cheering.

“Everybody is frustrated with the lack of leadership on both sides,” said John Osborn of St. Paul. “But the result of that is who we have in office now, who is beyond our worst expectations, and so we have to stand up against it. I don’t know where we’re going to go from here. But this is the first step, is standing up against it.”

He said that the first “No Kings” rally was very emotional for him because he was filled with concern, but that Saturday’s rally had a different feeling.

“There is more optimism,” he said. “There’s more unity. There are more people coming together. People are feeling that positive energy of coming together, so that’s heartening to feel. You look around and see everyone is smiling.”

Joanne Terry of St. Paul said that it seemed like at least 10 times as many people had turned out Saturday than had turned out for the first rally in June.

She and Jen Keating, also of St. Paul, came together to protest the Trump administration “because of the (federal government) shutdown and because we’re all just getting really tired of all our independent rights being removed, people being persecuted and people not getting the services that our taxes are paying for,” she said.

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Keating agreed. “Every day I wake up and it hits me what is actually happening and that it is so unconstitutional. It’s so great to gather with all these people and know I’m not alone,” Keating said.

“We the people do have the power,” Terry said. “And when we believe it, we can make a difference. We do have to speak out and do something to stop this.”

Organizers expected millions to attend more than 2,600 events planned in all 50 states. Demonstrators packed New York City’s Times Square, Boston Common, Chicago’s Grant Park and hundreds of smaller public spaces in what the Republican Party has called “Hate America” rallies.

The first “No Kings” rallies across the country were held in June. About 25,000 people attended the first rally at the state Capitol in St. Paul on June 14, according to the Minnesota State Patrol. Organizers with Indivisible claimed 80,000 attended.

By KONSTANTIN TOROPIN and CHRIS MEGERIAN

WASHINGTON — The two survivors of an American military strike on a suspected drug-carrying vessel in the Caribbean will be sent to Ecuador and Colombia, their home countries, President Donald Trump said Saturday.

The military rescued the pair after striking a submersible vessel Thursday, in what was at least the sixth such attack since early September.

“It was my great honor to destroy a very large DRUG-CARRYING SUBMARINE that was navigating towards the United States on a well known narcotrafficking transit route,” Trump said in a social media post. “U.S. Intelligence confirmed this vessel was loaded up with mostly Fentanyl, and other illegal narcotics.”

After Trump’s announcement, the Pentagon posted on X a brief black-and-white video of the strike. In the clip, a vessel can be seen moving through the waves, its front portion submerged inches below the water’s surface. Then, several explosions are seen, with at least one over the back of the vessel.

The Republican president said two people onboard were killed — one more than was previously reported — and the two who survived are being sent to their home countries “for detention and prosecution.”

With Trump’s confirmation on his Truth Social platform of the death toll, that means U.S. military action against vessels in the region have killed at least 29 people.

The president has justified the strikes by asserting that the United States is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels. He is relying on the same legal authority used by the George W. Bush administration when it declared a war on terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks, and that includes the ability to capture and detain combatants and to use lethal force to take out their leadership. Trump is also treating the suspected traffickers as if they were enemy soldiers in a traditional war.

The repatriation avoids questions for the Trump administration about what the legal status of the two would have been in the U.S. justice system. It may also sidestep some of the legal issues that arose out of the detention of enemy combatants in the global war on terrorism as well as challenges to the constitutionality of the current operation.

To some legal scholars, Trump’s use of such military force against suspect drug cartels, along with his authorization of covert action inside Venezuela, possibly to oust President Nicolás Maduro, stretches the bounds of international law.

On Friday, Trump seemed to confirm reports that Maduro has offered a stake in Venezuela’s oil and other mineral wealth in recent months to try to stave off mounting pressure from the United States. Venezuelan government officials have also floated a plan in which Maduro would eventually leave office, according to a former Trump administration official. That plan was also rejected by the White House, The Associated Press reported.

The strikes in the Caribbean have caused unease among members of Congress from both parties and complaints about receiving insufficient information on how the attacks are being conducted. But most Republican senators backed the administration last week on a measure that would have required Trump’s team to get approval from Congress before more strikes.

Meanwhile, another resolution to be considered would prevent Trump from outright attacking Venezuela without congressional authorization.

___

Megerian reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.

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