Jake Osterberger rushed for two touchdowns and the St. Ambrose defense came up with a final stop as the Bees celebrated Homecoming Weekend with a home-opening 25-20 win over Missouri Baptist Saturday afternoon.

The win, which featured the SAU Marching Band's first-ever on-field halftime show, moved SAU to 3-1 on the season.

After building a 25-6 lead midway through the third quarter, St. Ambrose was forced to rely on a defense that was on the field for more than 40 minutes. The Spartans had the ball at midfield trailing 25-20 with less than four minutes to play. The SAU defense saved the victory as Jaxson Nelson and Griffin Zajac broke up passes on third and fourth down, respectively, to give the ball back to the offense which was able to run out the final 2:06.

Osterberger, who has scored at least one touchdown in 10 straight games dating back to Sept. 30, 2017, had TD runs of two and 19 yards in the early stages of the third quarter to give St. Ambrose what seemed at the time a comfortable 25-6 lead. The junior running back has reached the end zone six times through four games this season.

But a quick-strike Bee offense, which needed a total of 18 plays on its four combined scoring drives, ran just 54 total plays in the game while the Spartans took 83 offensive snaps.

A defense that had allowed just a pair of field goals midway through the third quarter surrendered a Missouri Baptist touchdown late in the period after an interception gave the Spartans the ball on the SAU 16-yard line.

MBU (1-4) made things interesting with another touchdown midway through the fourth and got the ball back, marching to midfield before the Bees made their final stand.

Osterberger rushed for 77 yards on 17 carries and Isaiah Hawkins added 43 yards on nine attempts, including a nine-yard touchdown run in the second quarter that gave St. Ambrose a 12-3 halftime lead despite the Bees possessing the ball for just 6:52 of the game's first 30 minutes.

Jake Romani completed 14-of-24 passes for 192 yards. He threw a nine-yard scoring strike to Carter Himmelman in the first quarter to get the Bees off to a 6-0 start.

Romani's touchdown pass to Himmelman, courtesy SAUtv

Tanner Champley caught seven passes for 85 yards while J.D. Villafuerte (54 yards) and Patrick Bond (26) each hauled in a pair of receptions.

Zajac led the defense with nine total tackles. Taylor O'Donnell was credited with eight tackles and a sack, while Bernard Buhake was in on seven stops, including a sack, giving him a team-high 4.5 sacks this season. Ryan Zitkus, Dillon Valdez and Sam Kabureck each recorded six tackles.

SAU will now turn its attention to MSFA Midwest League play as conference action begins next Saturday with a 1 p.m. contest at St. Francis (Ill.).