ARDEN HILLS, MINN.—Junior wide receiver Albert Rundell's MIAC-record 21 receptions and five touchdown grabs highlighted the No. 4 Bethel University football team in their 49-7 victory over Carleton at Royal Stadium on Saturday afternoon. With the victory, the Royals clinch a share of the MIAC Championship and the conference's automatic qualifier into the 2025 NCAA Division III Championship. Bethel now has seven MIAC Championships, including their last title in 2023.
Rundell's 21 catches surpasses the previous school record of 16 accomplished two other times, most recently coming from Micah Niewald against Susquehanna on December 12, 2024. It was also the most from a MIAC player since Nick Heenie's (Augsburg) 20 against Carleton on October 13, 2018. Rundell's five touchdown catches beat out the previous school record of four accomplished multiple times. It tied the MIAC record of five that occurred two other occasions, most recently from Jeremy Loretz (Saint John's) against Macalester on November 10, 1994.
Rundell finished the game with 214 yards receiving, and now leads all divisions of college football with 1,279 yards receiving this season.
Quarterback Cooper Drews' six touchdown passes tied his own school-record achieved on two other occasions, the most recent against Carleton on November 2, 2024.
The Royals move to 9-0, 8-0 MIAC, while the Knights fall to 6-3, 6-2 MIAC.
Bethel 49, Carleton 7
Carleton recovered a fumble on Bethel's 32-yard line with 9:35 remaining in the first quarter. The Knights capitalized two plays later off a double lateral pass from Cooper Pollard to Jaxon Watson from 23 yards out, which gave them a 7-0 lead with 8:42 on the clock.
The Royals scored 49 unanswered points. Albert Rundell was responsible for 35 of those points off touchdown catches from 30, 17, 21, 14, and five yards to secured a 49-7 victory. Bethel's scoring also consisted of quarterback Cooper Drews' two-yard run with 14:33 left in the second quarter, and Teagan Viebrock's 14-yard touchdown grab with 11:14 remaining in the third quarter.
Drews tied for a career-best 38 completions on 48 attempts for 405 yards and six touchdowns. He also rushed for 27 yards and one score. Ian Burkman paced the Royals on the ground with 52 yards on 12 carries, followed by David Geebli's 51 yards on seven carries. Taye Manns added 48 yards on 11 attempts.Â
Jake Borman was in on six tackles, and had one quarterback hurry for the Royals defense. This included one sack for a four-yard loss. Phil Conant, Seth Johnson, Will Jessup, and Abdallah Abed also contributed sacks for a Royals defense that surrendered just 17 yards rushing, and 79 total yards.Â
Bethel's 650 yards of total offense was the most in a game since October 23, 2021 against Macalester. It included 420 passing and 230 on the ground.
Notable performances from the Knights came from Eric Lail and Owen Detmer, who finished with 15 and 14 tackles, respectively.
The Royals will look to clinch the outright 2025 MIAC Championship, and secure their first undefeated regular season since 2013Â at St. Scholastica on Saturday, November 15 at 1 p.m.
