SAINT PAUL, Minn. — October 7, 1995. That was the last time the Bethel University football team lost a game to their Snelling Avenue foes, the Hamline University Pipers. 

On Saturday afternoon the Royals’ domination over the Pipers continued as Bethel put up 582 yards and eight touchdowns on offense with the Cooper-Drews-to-Joey-Kidder connection accounting for four of those touchdowns. 

The Pipers got the ball first, and almost immediately, junior defensive back Devin Williams forced a fumble, punching the ball out of the arms of Piper receiver Eric Pfenning-Wendt. The Bethel offense set up on the Piper 32-yard line. 

From there Drews and Kidder got the Royals’ offense rolling, connecting on a 7-yard touchdown pass to put Bethel ahead, 7-0, early in the game. 

Three minutes later the duo found the end zone again when Drews fired a short pass to Kidder, who made a couple of Piper defenders miss and found paydirt for his second touchdown catch of the afternoon. 

On Bethel’s next offensive drive,  Cooper Drews’ pump fake to Micah Niewald resulted in a wide-open Joey Kidder on a post route for an easy 21-yard touchdown reception to make it 28-0, Royals. 

“It’s good to mix in those where you look like you’re gonna throw one of those [short] like you normally do, and then fake it and just hit them up the seam,” Drews said. 

Kidder reached the end zone once more for his fourth touchdown reception to give the Royals a commanding 42-0 lead at the half. 

Kidder’s four first half touchdown grabs tied the single game career high he set earlier this season against the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Kidder now has 12 receiving touchdowns on the season, one shy of matching his single season high of 13 touchdown grabs during the 2022 season. 

After Bethel’s opening drive of the second half stalled near mid-field, the Royals’ defense came up with a three-and-out. Drews and the offense got the ball back before entering the red zone on a 32-yard quarterback keeper. 

Drews collected his fifth touchdown pass, this time finding senior wideout Micah Niewald, who took a screen pass 14 yards into the end zone. Drews targeted  Niewald again on the following drive, this time getting the Piper defense to bite on a play-action fake before passing it short. 

Niewald did the rest, racing down the sideline past the Hamline defense for a 44-yard touchdown grab and a 56-0 Bethel lead. 

The Bethel backups came in from there, tacking on a pair of garbage-time fourth quarter rushing touchdowns to make the final score 70-0, Royals.

It’s the third time this season the Royals’ defense has kept its opponent off the scoreboard, and in the past four weeks, the Royals have outscored their opposition by a combined score of 245-8. 

Additionally, the Royals’ offense continues to shine with back-to-back 70-plus-point performances and the third straight game where it has racked up over 500 yards of total offense. 

“It’s really fun…we can score and put up a lot of yards and points,” Drews said. “But I think it kind of shows everyone’s bought into this system, and it’s really cool to see things come together on the run game and the pass game.” 

The sophomore transfer quarterback  finished the day completing  24 of 26 pass attempts and tossing six touchdown passes — both season highs. 

As the Royals’ high-powered offense continues to run through MIAC Skyline division opponents, becoming more comfortable and confident in the system is key heading down the stretch towards the MIAC championship and beyond. 

“It’s just been really rolling at a good speed here,” Drews said. “So the goal is to maintain that and keep it going for when games get more important.”