ARDEN HILLS, Minn. – The Bethel University Royals turned in a great all-around performance on a beautiful, early fall day in beating the visiting Golden Gusties of Gustavus 31-0. Bethel's defense was smothering all day long, limiting the Gusties to just 139 total yards. Bethel meanwhile, put up 353 yards of total offense, 251 on the ground, with special teams also serving as a huge area of advantage for the Royals.

One of Bethel's few mistakes on the day came early on after the Royals impressively marched down the field after the opening kickoff, but a fumble turned the ball over to the Gusties on the GAC 20 yard line. Bethel's defense forced an immediate punt and the ensuing snap sailed over the Gustavus' punter's head into the end zone where he was able to fall on the ball for a safety. The Gusties then knocked the kickoff out of bounds at the 35 yard line, giving Bethel the ball at midfield where they marched down to score their first touchdown after a 10-play drive. Freshman-transfer quarterback Jaran Roste scored from the four yard line on a quarterback sneak on third and two. Bethel's next drive on offense started at their own 11-yard line but the poor field position did not deter the Royals. Roste capped an impressive 11-play, 89-yard drive with another four yard touchdown run to put Bethel up 22-0 after Blake Hottle converted the PAT.

The Bethel defense continued their dominance as they knocked the Gusties back when Drew Ragsdale and Cameron Monson combined for a sack on second down. The Gusties again went three-and-out and again had kicking problems as the ensuing punt went just 28 yards giving Bethel another short field. Roste and the offense took advantage again with another touchdown drive of eight plays with who else but Roste scoring for the third time on a two-yard run and a 28-0 lead. The Gusties best drive of the day stalled after 10 plays and 41 yards with a pair of incomplete passes on third and fourth downs and Bethel ran out the clock to take their lead into the half.

The second half saw little offense from either team. Bethel's first drive of the half ended with a Blake Hottle 28-yard field goal to put the Royals up 31-0. The two teams then traded punts over their next several possessions with Roste showing his all-around talent by pinning the Gusties on their own one yard line on a 37 yard punt. The Gusties were able to get out of the shadow of their own goal post, but eventually their drive was ended on a fumble which was scooped up by Kyle Kilgore and returned 16 yards to the Gustavus 47-yard line. Bethel then drove down inside the ten but the Gusties held strong, stopping Bethel on fourth down from the five. Neither team would threaten the rest of the way as the game ended with the 31-0 final.
Roste's all-around performance led Bethel as the Alexandria, Minnesota native totaled a team high 117 yards on the ground with three touchdowns to go along with 10-13 passing and 102 more yards. Sam Gibas chipped in 108 yards on the ground on 22 carries.



Defensively Mike Delich led Bethel with 8 total tackles and one tackle for loss. Cameron Monson had 1 ½ sacks and five tackles. Kyle Kilgore totaled five tackles, two for a loss, to go along with the fumble recovery. For the Gusties, their outstanding senior quarterback Michael Veldman completed just 5 of 20 passes for 84 yards as the Gusties receivers had several catchable balls go through their hands.

The win for Bethel improves the Royals to 3-0 on the season and amazingly for the first time in the 72-year history of Bethel football the Royals have an all-time winning record of 326-325-7. Starting in 1947, Bethel began the year 0-4 and never reached .500 or better until now. Since head coach Steve Johnson took over 30-years ago the Royals have gone 210-98-1 after starting out 118-227-6.

Next week the Royals travel to Northfield, Minnesota to take on the Carleton College Knights with a 1 p.m. kickoff at Laird Stadium on the Carleton campus.