ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - The Roosevelt University Lakers normally wouldn't require a lot of breaks to defeat the Missouri Baptist Spartans, but on Saturday night in Arlington Heights, Ill., they got them anyway.  The 22^ND-ranked Lakers capitalized on five MBU turnovers to earn a 41-3 victory. The loss is the third straight for the Spartans after starting the season at 2 and 1.
 
The young Spartan quarterbacks struggled mightily against Roosevelt on this night. Freshman starter Ashton Strother completed just six of his 13 passing attempts for 39 yards, to go along with three interceptions. Fellow freshman Cooper Brown took over in the second quarter but was unable to fair much better. Brown went 13 for 27 with 97 yards and an interception of his own. The Lakers made MBU pay a hefty price for the interceptions, directly turning them into 21 points, including one returned for a touchdown.

With just over five minutes remaining in a scoreless first quarter, Strother was intercepted by cornerback Jalen Perkins, who returned the ball to the MBU 41-yard line. That allowed the Lakers to get on the board first, as eight plays later they got a touchdown on a Tyler Tenner run to take the lead. On the ensuing drive, Perkins picked off Strother again and returned it to the MBU 40. A personal foul penalty backed the Lakers up to their own 45 but it took them only three plays and 50 seconds to score, this time on a 58-yard touchdown reception by Jerrell Calhoun. The Spartans started to move the ball well in the second quarter and seemed poised to cut the 14-0 Lakers lead in half.  However, Strother was intercepted by Corties Draper at the 11-yard line and the Spartans were turned away again. That proved to be the end of the evening for Strother as Brown then came on in relief.

Despite the turnover trouble, the game was still close.  An Odaine Reid field goal from 42 yards got the Spartans on the board with six seconds remaining in the half, but that is all the points they could muster on the night. Reid missed a previous field goal and had one blocked in the second half.

The Lakers lead remained only 14-3 until midway through the third quarter. However, Roosevelt found their stride at that point and outscored the Spartans 27-0 in the second half and 20-0 in the fourth quarter to put the game away. That margin was aided in part by a fourth quarter interception of Brown by Draper, his second of the game, which he returned 32 yards for a touchdown. That score made it 34-3 and the only item left to be determined was the final score.

The Lakers did the majority of their damage with the ground game, which has been their calling card. A team that came in averaging 212 yards per game on the ground, had exactly 214 yards in this game. Their leading rusher was Tyler Tenner who ran for 112 yards and three touchdowns. The Lakers only completed nine passes on the evening but that accounted for 198 yards. They averaged a whopping 22 yards per reception. The majority of those yards were accounted for by wide receiver Jerrell Calhoun with his five catches for 122 yards and a touchdown. Overall, Roosevelt outgained MBU 412 yards to 195.

Offensively for MBU, seven different receivers caught passes, but no one receiver caught more than four balls or gained more than 31 yards. Senior Josh Munn had 3 catches for 31 yards, and both Jacob Harness and Kameron Sloan caught four a piece for 25 and 23 yards respectively. Running back Ronald Allen showed some flashes on the ground with 6 carries for 42 yards, including his longest of 28.

Freshman Cade Biedscheid had his most active game as a Spartan, with 11 total tackles including an assist on a tackle for loss. Graduate student Joe King had 11 tackles as well, including eight solo stops.

Missouri Baptist was short-handed from the outset in this game, without leading tackler Blake Kight, wide receiver and punter Gavin Claud, and placekicker Jonah Cox. All three were out with nagging injuries this week.

Roosevelt won their Homecoming game to move their record to 4-1. After opening the season 2-1, MBU has now dropped three straight contests to fall to 2-4. The Spartans will need to regroup quickly as they will travel back to the Chicago area again next weekend to face another ranked opponent. Kickoff is next Saturday at Noon when Missouri Baptist takes on #18 Saint Xavier.