ST. LOUIS – After more than 3 and a half hours of football on the last unofficial Saturday night of the summer of 2022, the game was still in the balance. Freshman QB Ashton Strother and the rest of his Spartan teammates had experienced the many ups and downs of a game that was extended into 4 overtimes...and they were tired. Strother calmly went under center to take the snap…one of the first times he took this more traditional exchange from his center all night. He turned, faked a handoff to tailback Ronald Allen, and rolled to his right. He must have liked what he saw. It's not a stretch to say that the more than 800 Spartan faithful in the stands liked what they saw too. Strother threw a perfect strike into the waiting hands of sophomore Gavin Claud.  The Missouri Baptist Spartans had their first victory of the season 25-23 at home against Iowa Wesleyan in quadruple overtime in front of a raucous crowd at Spartan Stadium.

It was a game that was equal parts exhilarating and frustrating, encouraging and tedious.  But in the end, the Spartans got the victory and got the first win of the season under their belt.

While it's true this game was not executed to perfection by either squad, it is one that will be remembered for a long time. Not only was it the longest game in MBU football history, but it was also the first victory in the collegiate career of Strother.  He was nothing short of extraordinary when the game was on the line. He finished with 26 completions on 46 attempts for 271 yards and 3 touchdowns, including the strike to Claud.  He also had the game-tying quarterback scramble for a touchdown that sent the game into the fourth and final overtime.

At the start, the Spartan offense which was slightly out of sync in Week 1 against Lyon continued to sputter through most of the first half. The difference from last week to this week was that the special teams, and in particular the field goal kicking unit, struggled mightily in this one too. In fact, after a perfect 4 for 4 a week ago, the Spartans were 0 for 7 on field goal attempts in this game.

It took almost six full quarters, but the offense was able to find the end zone for the first time this season. Strother rainbowed a 47-yard pass perfectly into the endzone for Claud with less than three minutes to go in the first half. Jonah Cox tacked on the PAT and the Spartans had their first lead of the night and just their second of the season.

IWU answered quickly though with a 7-play, 80-yard drive to tie it up late in the first half. On that drive, Tigers freshman quarterback Zack Chevelier had completions of 18, 27, and 33 yards to get IWU on the board. The game was 7-7 at the halftime break.

The Spartans started quickly in the second half. Quarterback-turned-receiver and return man junior Josh Munn fielded the Tiger second-half kickoff and returned it all the way to the Iowa Wesleyan 20-yard line. It took six plays from there before Strother found fellow freshman tight end Cortney Cox in the back of the end zone for a 10-yard touchdown. The Cox PAT made it 14-7.

Missed opportunities became the story of the game of the Spartans for the remainder of the second half of regulation, as they missed 3 more field goals that would have extended the lead to a comfortable 2-score cushion.

As fate would have it, those misses were costly for the Spartans. The score would remain 14-7 in favor of MBU until the final two minutes of the 4^th quarter. IWU put together another 80-yard drive and scored the equalizer with just 1:21 to go in regulation.  The extra point was good and the game was knotted at 14-14.

It looked as though the Tigers left too much time on the clock though when the Spartans were able to navigate all the way to the Tiger 31 with :05 seconds left.  However, MBU could not connect on a 48-yard field goal as time expired in regulation.

When overtime started, both teams scored touchdowns on their first possession of the extra frame, the Spartans tally coming on a Strother 13-yard pass to Munn. Neither team scored in the 2^nd overtime. Beginning with the 3^rd overtime, by NAIA rules, each team alternates with possession for one play from the three yard line, similar to a two-point conversion attempt after a touchdown. IWU scored on its play from the three and the Tigers took their only lead of the game. With that, it looked as though the Spartans lack of success in the kicking game would come back to truly hurt them.  But in reality, it only added another chapter to the emerging story of Ashton Strother. Dropping back to pass and finding no one available, he tucked the ball down and sprinted for the right front corner of the endzone, sliding down just across the goal line to get the game tied at 23 after the third overtime and setting the stage for his second overtime conversion hookup with Claud to seal the deal.

Defensively, linebacker Blake Kight was outstanding for the second week in a row. The junior finished with 13 tackles including 10 solo stops. Sophomore Giovanoi Sanes was a force all night on the defensive line as well with 10 total tackles, 2 for loss, a sack, and 2 pass breakups.  

Redshirt freshman Kam Sloan, celebrating his birthday, hauled in 8 balls for 78 yards to lead the receiving corps. The Spartans leading rusher on the season – graduate student Ronald Allen- had 16 carries for 49 yards on the ground for the Spartans.

Despite the final score, Iowa Wesleyan held a whopping 17-minute advantage in time of possession.

The Spartans move to 1-1 on the season and will get a week off before traveling to play Madonna University on September 17^th. Iowa Wesleyan is back on the road at Westminster on Saturday, September 10^th.