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BOLIVAR, Mo. -- The SBU Bearcats pounded Southern Nazarene, scoring a school record 65 first half points on the way to a 68-10 Homecoming victory. It was the third straight victory for the Bearcats.

Steve Gachette led the Bearcats (3-4) with four touchdown passes on 14 of 17 passing attempts for 250 yards. He also had 171 yards on nine rushes and tied a school record with an 80-yard touchdown run. Freshman Semaj Edwards carried 14 times for 61 yards while another freshman, Tiras Harris, carried six times for 47 yards. Charles Johnson and Johnnie King also tied school records with two touchdown catches each. Johnson had four catches for 118 yards and King caught three balls for 69 yards. Derrick Foster led with six catches. The Bearcats rolled up 659 yards of total offense, just missing the school record of 677 set last year against Bethany.

Henry Ogunjimi led the defense with nine total tackles while Nathan Brown and Jarred Schumpert had six each. The Bearcats got interceptions from Schumpert, Tyrin Holt and Jordan Jackson.

NAIA Southern Nazarene (3-3) got on the scoreboard first, on a 34-yard field goal by Ryan Brock. The Bearcats would then open the floodgates, scoring the next 65 points. First came a Gachette 27-yard touchdown run at the 11:40 mark. Then Anthony Wiggins blocked a punt which was recovered by Jameson Manuma in the endzone for a touchdown. Thad Everson scored on an eight yard run midway through the quarter and Johnson would catch his two touchdowns (26 and 55 yards). The Bearcats led after one quarter 34-3.

The barrage continued in the second quarter when King caught the first of his two scores, followed by  Edwards scoring his first Bearcat touchdown on a 12-yard run. King would catch his second touchdown with 5:08 left in the half. Gachette's record-tying 80-yard run came at the 2:18 mark before Brock Jolly would hit a field goal from 28 yards out to close the half, with SBU leading 65-3.

Things were much quieter in the second half as the Crimson Storm scored on a 25-yard run by Brady Wardlaw in the third quarter and the Bearcats' lone score came on a fourth quarter 22-yard field goal by Jolly.

"Our kids came out with great effort and executed well," said head coach Keith Allen. "Good teams do that when the opportunity presents itself. I was pleased that we were able to get a lot of players in the game and those players took advantage of the opportunity. I was also pleased with the punt block. I told the student body at the pep rally Friday night that we thought we had a good opportunity for a block."

The Bearcats look to even their overall record at home again next week when they host Northeastern State, with the game kicking off at 1:30 p.m.