Box Score BOX SCORE
ALLIANCE, OH - The Royals put up a strong fight on Saturday as they took on the Mount Union Purple Raiders, but came up short as the Raiders outscored the Royals 34-14.
The Bethel defense held the Raiders scoreless in the first quarter, a feat only one other team had accomplished this year. The Royals were able to score first on a
Josh Aakre quarterback sneak. The score came right after
Ethan Anderson grabbed an interception and brought the ball down to the Mount Union 3-yard line.
In the second quarter the Purple Raiders grabbed the momentum back scoring 24 point to set the score 24-7 at the half.
Coming out to start the second half the Royals kicked to the Purple Raiders scored on their first drive taking only 2:18 off the clock. From that point on the Royals had a difficult time turning the tide, and though they were able to get some big plays late in the 4th quarter they ultimately went down 34-14.
The Royals had 11 first downs, running for 118 yards, while passing for 107. #
Logan Flannery# lead the team in rushing with 60 yards. The only other game Flannery had less yards was against St. John's when he only ran the ball 9 times. That brings Flannerys total career numbers to 5,303 yards rushing. No other back in school or MIAC history has ever put up those numbers. Aakre was 10-19 passing for 107 yards on the day.
The Royal defense was lead by #
David Vavra who had 7 total tackes on the day. Brett Skoog had 5.5 tackles and right behind him was senior Cory Svihla# with 5. Svihla was also responsible for a fumble recovery, which accounted for 1 of the 2 turnovers the Royals forced.
The Purple Raiders put up 440-yards of total offense against the Royals. The Purple Raiders were lead on offense by Jeremy Murry and Matt Piloto rush for 66 and 49 yards respectively. Pilato was 17-32 on the day for 335 yards. Cecil Shorts was the main receiver on the day catching 4 receptions for a total of 165 yards.
The Purple Raiders will travel to the Stagg Bowl next week to take on UW-Whitewater in the championship game. This will be the 6th consecutive year that the two have faced each other in the final.
