St. Ambrose leaned on its defense on a rainy Saturday afternoon at Trinity International.

And the defense came up big, limiting the Trojans to just 167 yards of toal offense in a 12-7 win.

SAU gave up just 58 yards on the ground, allowed nine total first downs and got the team on the board first.

After the Bees' first drive stalled at the TIU 37-yard line, Kenny Rowe's 35-yard punt pinned the Trojans on their own 2-yard line. Cody Kieffer and Jim Morrissey stuffed a first-down run for no gain, then Deontae Curry and Grant Wallace combined for a tackle for a one-yard loss. Trinity International (2-7, 1-3 MSFA) again went to the run but Curry and Servando Duran made the tackle in the end zone for a safety.

Tanner Champley returned the ensuing kickoff 25 yards to give the Bees the ball at the Trojan 40-yard line. Facing a 4th-and-7 at the 26-yard line, Jake Romani connected with Tom Macari on a 22-yard pass play, and two plays later, Jake Osterberger scored from a yard out for SAU's only touchdown of the game and a 9-0 lead late in the first quarter.

Those would prove to be the only points St. Ambrose would need.

Rowe tacked on a 36-yard field goal on the final play of the first half to extend the lead to 12-0.

The Bees maintained the shutout early in the third quarter even after a fumble gave the Trojans the ball in SAU territory. But the Bees got a stop on 4th-and-2 from the 25-yard line to end the possession.

Trinity International finally got on the board in the fourth quarter. A 13-play, 70-yard drive was capped by an eight-yard touchdown pass to cut the SAU lead to 12-7 with 3:31 left.

Macari recovered the on-side kick and St. Ambrose chewed up 2:27 before giving the ball back to TIU on downs on the Trojan 21-yard line. But Trinity International's last-gasp drive only produced four yards before SAU was able to run out the clock.

Dillon Valdez led the defense with eight total tackles, including two for losses. Duran had seven stops while Curry, Kobe Easley and Sam Kabureck were each in on six tackles. Kabureck had 2.5 of the team's 11 tackles for loss.

Offensively, the Bees relied on their running backs. Baylee Hopps carried the ball 33 times for 176 yards and Osterberger ran for 65 yards on 24 attempts.

Romani completed nine passes, three of those to Eli Petty, for 76 yards.

The win gives St. Ambrose (4-5, 2-2 MSFA) a chance to end the year at .500. The Bees will close the 2017 season next Saturday with a 1 p.m. kickoff at Olivet Nazarene.