#RV/RV
Date/Time	Saturday, Oct.7 | 7 p.m. CT
Location	St. Paul, Minn. • Macalester Stadium
Live Stream	MIAC Sports Network
Live Stats	athletics.macalester.edu/sidearmstats/football/summary
Bethel	Game Notes
Saint John's	Athletics.Macalester.edu
Social Media	Twitter | Football Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

KICKOFF COVERAGE

ARDEN HILLS, Minn. – Skyline Division play kicks off Saturday as the Bethel University football team travels to Macalester in a 7 p.m. kickoff. The Royals (2-2, 1-1 MIAC) are coming off a 37-28 win over Gustavus to get back to .500 on the year while Macalester (2-2, 0-2 MIAC) suffered a 23-17 loss at home to St. Scholastica.

SERIES HISTORY

Series:  BU leads 23-10
Last: Bethel won 63-13 (Oct. 22, 2022) in St. Paul

• It's the 34th all-time meeting between the Royals and Scots and only the fifth meeting since 2000. Bethel is riding a 15-game winning streak on the Scots dating back to the 1989 season. The series saw an 18-year hiatus (2002-2020) until the Scots rejoined the MIAC in football beginning with the 2021 season.

COACHES CORNER

ROYAL NOTES

• Bethel will be under the lights for the first time since 2015. The last night game came on the road at Wisconsin-Stout on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2015 in what was a 35-20 victory for the Royals.
• Junior Aaron Ellingson became the third Royal in the last three seasons to have both a rushing and catching touchdown in a game and first since October 23, 2021. His multi-TD performance against GAC came with 60 rushing yards on 15 carries while capturing 68 receiving yards on five catches. His 31-yard scamper into the endzone was the longest rush of his career.
• George Bolt aired it out for a career-high 251 yards last Saturday. He was 17-of-29 passing while matching a career-high two touchdowns. On special teams, he punted it away twice for an average of 43.8 yards with both falling inside the 10-yard line. His career-best 51 yard punt in the third landed on the GAC four-yard-line.
• The defense forced four fumbles last Saturday, matching the most in a game since the 2014 season. BU recovered all four fumbles including the game's final recovery by Isaac Call in the endzone adding on an extra six points. It's the third time since the 2014 season that the Royals forced four fumbles.
• For the second straight week, Bethel received votes in both the D3ftoobll.com and American Football Coaches Association polls. The Royals dropped out of the top 25 last week for the first time since week nine of the 2018 season snapping the program's second-longest streak at 46 weeks.
 
 BY THE NUMBERS
63 – Bethel has put up 63 points in both of the last two meetings versus Macalester since the Scots rejoined the conference in the 2021 season. 
 
246 – career wins for head coach Steve Johnson who enters his 35th season as the all-time wins leader among DIII active coaches.
 
251 – George Bolt aired it out for a career-high 251 yards in the win against Gustavus Adolphus.

CALL ON ME
• The brother duo of redshirt freshman Alex Call and junior defensive back Isaac Call have made an early impact for the Royals. The two hail from Kerkhoven, Minn. and attended Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg High School.
• In his first collegiate start at Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Alex Call went 24-of-34 through the air for 334 yards and two touchdowns. A 76-yard reception from Call to Joey Kidder in the second quarter was the longest by a Bethel QB since Sept. 23, 2017 when Bryce Marquardt had a 96-yard TD pass to Jake Marsh versus St. Olaf.
• Alex Call tallied his first rushing touchdown as a quarterback punching it in from one-yard out as the Royals struck first at Saint John's in the second quarter.
• Isaac Call has tallied interceptions in back-to-back games, returning the INT at SJU for 37 yards which then set up his brother Alex to run it in from one yard out on the Royals' drive. Call now has four career INTs. He also added a defensive touchdown against GAC, recovering a lateral fumble in the endzone for six.
 
SPLITTING THE UPRIGHTS
• Junior placekicker Hugo Cifuentes is now 2-for-2 on the year in field goal attempts. He split the uprights from 22 yards out at UW-Eau Claire before nailing a 38-yarder, one yard shy of his career-high, against Gustavus as the only points in the third quarter. He is 8-for-8 this year on PATs.
 
STRONG SECONDARY
• The Royals started the year with seven interceptions in the first three games. Their six in the first two games was the most to start the season for BU since 2004.
•  DB's Isaac Call and Gavin Rataj each have a pair of interceptions this season with Matt Jung, Devin Williams and Nate Farm each with one.

LAST TIME THEY MET
• Bethel scored early and often in last year's showdown in St. Paul where they amassed 544 yards of offense and held the Scots to 215 yards. Bethel's defense held MAC to 18 rushing yards which was a season-low for a BU opponent.
• Micah Niewald had a career-high three touchdown receptions doing so on six catches for 100 yards. Mat Teigland and David Geebli each had two rushing touchdowns with Jaran Roste picking up the fifth.
 
SCOUTING THE GUSTIES
•  Macalester is coming off a 23-17 loss to St. Scholastica, that after mounting a comeback from trailing 20-3 at one point. The Scots were without senior QB Michael Nadeau who had helped them average 500 yards a game before MAC managed just 249 yards against the Saints.
• In their first two games of the season, Macalester scored a combined 100 points for the first time in program history. Nadeau threw 13 touchdowns passes including a program-record eight at Marth Luther.
• The defense allows 29.5 points per game and 405.5 yards per game including a 223.8 mark through the air.
• The special teams ranks eighth nationally with four blocked kicks.
 

>>> READ BETHEL'S COMPLETE GAME NOTES BY CLICKING HERE.