Selinsgrove, Pa. – The No. 21-ranked Bethel University football team saw its playoff run come to an end, falling 24-21 at No. 6 Susquehanna in the quarterfinals of the Division III Football Championships. BU ends the year with an 11-3 overall record.
 
The River Hawks got their first lead of the day scoring on a one-yard rush on fourth-and goal with 38 seconds left in the game, what ensued after could be defined in two words. Crazy and chaotic.
 
A defensive pass interference call and a 15-yard connection to Micah Niewald put the Royals at the River Hawks 30-yard line with six seconds left after the Royals clocked it. Drews on the next play took a shot at the endzone where Joey Kidder made what everyone thought was the game-winning catch as time expired, but the play was negated by an offensive holding call. BU made one effort with a handful of laterals after having it on their own 45-yard line but was not able to find the endzone again.            
 
Bethel held the River Hawks to 189 rushing yards, 59 yards below their season average. SU had 404 yards of offense compared to Bethel's 323 which was affected by the 41-yard loss on the final lateral play.
 
Cooper Drews finished 33-of-45 with 248 yards passing and one touchdown. He finished the year with a single-season record 43 touchdown passes. Aaron Ellingson in his final game as a Royal rushed it 14 times for 62 yards with one touchdown. His 19 rushing TDs this season came one shy of tying the single-season record.
 
Micah Niewald tied a program single-game record with 16 catches. He had one touchdown while bringing in 154 receiving yards. His 52 catches in the postseason is a DIII tournament record. Joey Kidder capped out an incredible career with 11 catches for 78 yards. Kidder finishes the year with a single-season record 1,386 yards while Niewald finished with 1,385.
 
On the defensive side, Nate Farm and Carter Johnson each had a game-high 12 tackles. Matt Jung and Caden DeWall each added 11. DeWall finished with 2.5 sacks and finished the year with a single-season record 21.5.
 
After the defense forced a three-and-out on the River Hawks opening drive, Ellingson's two-yard rushing touchdown capped out a methodical 12-play, 78-yard drive to put the Royals on the board in their opening drive.
 
Susquehanna tied it up with 6:11 left in the half converting on its second fourth down play of the drive. Having it 4th-and-goal from the two, Matt Surtz found room on the left side just getting into the end zone before a host of Royals.
 
The Royals had an immediate response with David Geebli strutting in from eight yards out after making a man miss around the five-yard line.
 
Forcing Susquehanna to punt, the Royals had one more chance to add another touchdown before the break, but Cooper Drews took a sack on second down, eventually leading the Royals to punt. The River Hawks with under 30 seconds to go, took a shot downfield where Nate Farm intercepted the pass, allowing the Royals to take a 14-7 lead into the break.

Bethel punted on its opening drive of the second while the River Hawks tied it up on their first drive with an 18-yard touchdown pass. 
  
BU went back up at the start of the fourth quarter as Niewald made a grab in the back of the endzone for the 16-yard score. Niewald had four catches on the drive which went 83 yards in 12 plays over a 3:58 time period.
 
The River Hawks entered the red zone on their next drive but a two-yard sack by Colin Heckman helped the defense eventually hold SU to a 35-yard field goal making it 21-17 with 8:30 left in the game.
 
A 42-yard pass over the top on the first play after the two-minute timeout on 2nd-and-17 set up the River Hawks inside the five. Bethel stopped the River Hawks on two straight rushes from the one until SU crossed the goal line for the eventual game winning score.


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