St. Thomas Aquinas powered through Bixby 41-14 to open up the season for the Saints.

Head Coach Tim Kluempers had a very strong team in 2020 and has come back with a group that might have a few questions, but seems to have started when it left off last year.

The Saints got a solid forward performance led by Sean Brough, Drew Minnis, and Aaron Goodwin, and the backs have been nicely anchored by Nick Jurczak, Payton Ptasnik, Brock Kluempers, and Bennett Bodenhamer, who were superb for so early in the season. Bixby lock Logan Franke was outstanding also.

"We ran well, we scored some tries, and did a nice job," said Coach Kluempers. "Bixby is a big strong team and our forwards did really well against them. But we also were killing ourselves tactically. We didn't use the wind well, but that's all part of the learning experience. A lot of good, hard, tough kids playing their hearts out for each other."

Aquinas plays Bixby on a regular basis early in the season and it's a key game for both teams. 

"It’s a very valuable game," said Kluempers. "We get good, hard competition. We're not the biggest team but the guys have a ton of heart and never quit, and this is a game where they get to work on that."