ARDEN HILLS, Minn. – The Bethel University Royals continued to play Bethel Royals football in the first round of the NCAA Playoffs on Saturday, crushing Wartburg 41-14. A powerful run game, a suffocating defense and big plays was the name of the game once again for Bethel. The Royals overpowered the American Rivers Conference (formerly the IIAC) champion Knights on both sides of the ball. Bethel established the ground game early on, grinding out multiple long drives early on, mainly on the ground, in building a 20-0 lead and then the big chunk plays started coming. A 67-yard touchdown run, a 75-yard interception return and a 41-yard touchdown run were the Royals final three scores. The Bethel defense totaled 10 sacks and two interceptions in holding Wartburg to negative 42 yards rushing while Bethel ran up 387 yards on the ground against a Wartburg team that was allowing just 80 yards rushing coming in.
 




Bethel's advantage in the trenches was evident early on as the Royals defense forced a quick three and out for Wartburg as the Knights were penalized twice in their three plays for pre-snap infractions. The offense went on an eight-play, 50-yard drive that stalled on the Wartburg 18-yard line after an incomplete fourth down pass. While the defense would continue to do their thing, forcing three more punts with only one first down mixed in, the offense would start to convert their long drives into touchdowns. A nine-play, 75-yard drive was capped by a Jaran Roste three-yard run. Four different Royals carried the ball on the drive as 70 of the 75 yards came on the ground. Mike Delich carried the ball on the same play three consecutive times picking up 11, nine and three yards to get the ball to the Wartburg three yard line where Roste powered it across the goal line. An eight-play, 50-yard drive then ensued for Bethel, with more of the same. The big play of the drive was an 18-yard completion on a great catch by John Carlson. Delich then ran in from the six for the touchdown and 13-0 lead after a missed PAT.

Bethel continued to force quick punts and turn them into long scoring drives. A nine-play, 59-yard drive featured every chunk of yardage on the ground, with once again four different Royals in Roste, Delich, Gibas and Brady Bomsta carrying the ball. On a fourth and one from the Wartburg 36, the Knights thought they may have stopped Bomsta short of the first down. After a measurement the Royals had picked up the mark to gain and the Wartburg head coach was called for unsportsmanlike conduct adding in another 15 yards. A Roste 20-yard run, Gibas four-yard run and Delich 11-yard run into the endzone put Bethel up 20-0 with 13:49 remaining in the first half.
 
Instead of just forcing another punt, the Bethel defense took it to another level, with an interception on the Knights first play as Dawson Brown picked up his team leading sixth interception of the year. Bethel would go three and out and the Knights were able to put together their best drive yet with eight plays but were stopped after gaining only 33-yards and forced to punt once again. Roste then delivered a big blow to the Knights as he popped a 67-yard touchdown run on the first play of the drive. The Knights blocked the extra point but to sum up their day, they were penalized for being offsides, and the Royals went for two instead with Delich ramming the ball into the endzone to make it 28-0. The knockout blow would follow when with 1:36 remaining in the half, linebacker Kyle Peach snagged a deflected pass and put together an amazing return, 75-yards to the endzone, putting Bethel up 35-0.
 
The second half saw Wartburg generate some offense through the air, putting together two scoring drives, one in the third quarter and one early in the fourth that included converting on fourth downs four different times. The highlight of the half for Bethel was a 41-yard touchdown run by Roste, his 17^th of the season on the ground.
 
The Royals defense garnered 10 sacks on the day, the same number they hit against Hamline in week eight, as senior defensive ends Cameron Monson and Kyle Kilgore had a field day in rushing the quarterback. Monson totaled three sacks for losses of 26 yards. Kilgore had two sacks for 24 yards of loss and also forced a fumble. Delich, in addition to his two rushing touchdowns, had a big day on defense too as he had three tackles, a sack for a nine-yard loss and a fumble recovery. The Bethel secondary totaled eight bass breakups by seven different Royals.
 
Roste and Gibas both went over the 100-yard mark on the day. Roste had 150 on just 10 carries while Gibas had 107 on 18 carries. Gideon Erhabor and Brady Bomsta combined for 16 carries and 79 yards to go along with Delich's seven for 51 and two scores. Bethel was just 4-15 passing for 47 yards between Roste and Jake Marsh with four different recievers making catches, all of which were important during their drives.
 
The Royals improved to 10-1 on the year and now look ahead to their matchup next Saturday against North Central College with the likely announcement coming Sunday that the game will be played in Naperville, Illinois (a Chicago suburb).  Ironically the last time the Royals were in the playoffs in 2013 they hosted Wartburg in the second round, winning 34-27, before hosting North Central on a sub-zero December day as Bethel was dealt their only loss that year by the Cardinals. Kickoff on Saturday, November 24^th will be at Noon.