ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Bethel Royals jumped on the Hamline University Pipers early and never looked back, rolling to a 49-7 victory on the Pipers home field. No. 16/17 Bethel scored 21 points each in the first and second quarters to take a 42-7 lead at halftime before tacking on one more score in the third quarter. The win extends the Royals winning streak against Hamline to 25 games dating through the 1996 season.
Bethel's first possession of the game ended in a punt but the Royals scored touchdowns on all four of their other first half possessions to go along with a kickoff return for a touchdown and a pick-six by the defense. After the first drive punt for the Royalsm
Tavian Swanson picked off a Hamline pass at the HU 22-yard line. A pair of
Bryce Kunkle runs totaling 17-yards was followed by a
Jaran Roste five yard run up the middle for the games first touchdown. The Royals defense then played take-away again, this time with freshman defensive lineman
Jacob Holmen snatching a Piper pass and returning it for a touchdown. On the day the New London-Spicer graduate finished as the Royals leading tackler with seven tackles, including a sack and another half tackle for a loss along with the interception and touchdown.
A Hamline three-and-out was followed by another Bethel scoring drive of 54-yards with Kunkle taking it in from nine yards out to make it 21-0 after the successful PAT by
Hugo Cifuentes. The Pipers were then able to put together an impressive scoring drive of 8 plays and 76 yards to pull within 21-7.
Nic Jones however stopped any momentum the Pipers were trying to gain by returning the ensuing kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown. Running back
Sid Boros capped off the Royals final two drives of the half with touchdown runs of two yards and 37 yards to bring BU's lead to 42-7.
The second half started with the Royals driving down to the HU 10-yard line but BU was stopped on downs after backup quarterback
George Bolt's pass into the end zone was incomplete on fourth down.
Riley Gritz was able to get into the endzone on the Royals final possession of the third quarter on a 14-yard run. Cifeuntes added the PAT as the freshman from Marshall, Minn. finished the day 7-7 in his first action of the year with fellow freshman kicker
Jack Hanson playing for the Bethel soccer team in their MIAC contest with Carleton Saturday afternoon. The Bethel defense picked off two more passes in the second half. The first by freshman safety
Isaac Call and the second by sophomore
Drew Libbon.
The Bethel offense ran for 245 yards on 32 carries while throwing for 155 more.
Riley Gritz was the leading rusher for BU with 95 yards on 10 carries.
Bryce Kunkle added 65 yards on six carries while
Sid Boros scored two touchdowns on four carries totaling 39 yards. Quarterback
Jaran Roste was 8-12 passing for 90 yards in just one half of action.
George Bolt led the offense in the second half going 5-10 for 65 yards.
The Bethel defense totaled three sacks and 10 tackles for loss to go along with four interceptions, holding the Pipers to just 209 yards of total offense. The Pipers ran the ball 35 times for just 74 yards while completing just 50% of their 30 passes for 135 yards.
The win improves Bethel to 4-1 overall as the Royals are now 1-0 in the all-important MIAC Skyline division games. Hamline falls to 3-2 and 0-1 in the Skyline. The Royals will stay on the road next week, traveling to Moorhead to take on Concordia in another pivotal divisional matchup. The Concordia was also playing in St. Paul Saturday, just a couple miles north of the Royals and Pipers at Macalester, where the Cobbers were victorious 34-27.
