Liberty, Mo. – SBU football began conference play Saturday evening with a thrilling victory over the William Jewell Cardinals. The scoreboard read 29-19 as a final score, ending the Cardinals undefeated season and moving SBU to 2-1 (1-0 GLVC) on the season. This is the first time SBU football has won back-to-back road games since 2016.

After multiple possession changes in the first few minutes of the game, Jewell had strong field position in SBU's territory. They capitalized on this with an 8-yard touchdown, striking first holding a 0-7 lead.

Possessions continued to change throughout the 1^st quarter until SBU punter Joey Chiavetta pinned the Cardinals within their own 20. Tyler Hart followed that play up with a 10-yard sack pushing Jewell closer to their end line. After two more strong defensive plays, Jewell was forced to punt from deep within their zone. That pressure was too much as the snap went over the punters head for a safety, making it 2-7. It only took one play of offense on the following drive for a 38-yard touchdown pass from Jaron Saunders to Avery Lambert, giving SBU the lead.

The SBU defense continued to stay strong throughout the ending of the 1^st quarter and part way through the 2^nd. Leading to a 10-play drive by the Bearcat offense ending in a Shawn Cherry one yard touchdown run. This birthday touchdown for Cherry put the Bearcats up 15-7. Jewell would go on to score a touchdown and field to head into half up 15-16.

The Cardinals had the ball to begin the second half and took the ball all the down the field for a long drive. SBU's defense came up strong again holding them to just a field goal, scoring for their final time in the game.
After the SBU offense got stopped on the next drive, the game seemed dire after the Jewell offense started making another strong drive. They got as far as the SBU 15-yard line until a fumble was recovered by junior Ricky Woodhouse shifting the momentum.

This led to a 15-play drive by the SBU offense, ending in one of the trickiest plays of the season. On 4^th and 3, SBU starting quarterback, Jaron Saunders, snapped the ball but handed it off to another QB, Shade Foster, who escaped a couple tackles to find Saunders at the one-yard line who then dove into the endzone. That touchdown gave SBU a 22-19 lead.

Another three-and out by the SBU defense quickly gave the ball back in the hands of the Bearcats. This drive ended in a seven-yard touchdown pass to SBU running back Jeremiah Horn, extending the lead to 10.
With just under 11 minutes in the game, Jewell's offense attempted to get back in the game. Each one of these attempts was thwarted by the superior SBU defense. The final attempt ended with a forced fumble by Charos Sutton and recovery by Jeremiah Besses.

Southwest Baptist football will take this two-game road winning streak back to the packed stands of Plaster Stadium next weekend. This game will be another evening game on Saturday, September 27^th at 6:00pm against Missouri S&T.