Tomele Staples threw four touchdown passes to lead St. Ambrose to a 52-13 win at William Woods Saturday night.

The Bees were nearly unstoppable offensively in the opening half, but things got started on the defensive side of the ball.

William Woods, playing in its first-ever home game in its first season of college football, took the opening kickoff and marched to the SAU 13-yard line. The Bees held and forced a 23-yard field goal, but Caleb Ballard blocked the attempt to keep the Owls off the scoreboard.

Then the St. Ambrose offense took over.

The Bees scored on their first six possessions.

Staples connected with Kameron Bohnsack on a 22-yard touchdown pass to open the scoring. Joe Namio booted a 25-yard field goal. Kaden King scored a pair of touchdowns in the first quarter. He first had a two-yard scoring run and later hauled in a Staples pass for a 46-yard touchdown and a 24-0 lead.

Maximo Vasquez scored on a short two-yard run before King ripped off a 57-yard touchdown in the second quarter to push the lead to 37-0 lead at the half.

The scoring barrage continued in the third quarter as Staples and Jalen Coleman hooked up for touchdown passes of six and three yards as the lead ballooned to 52-0.

St. Ambrose, looking for its first shutout since 2018, came up just short of that as William Woods scored two late touchdowns.

Staples completed 11 passes for 149 yards. Caleb Swanson entered and had one completion for six yards. Henry Wilson caught three passes for 50 yards. King (two catches, 55 yards), Bohnsack (1 catch, 22 yards) and Coleman (two catches, nine yards) all had touchdown receptions. AK Agee, Vasquez and Braden Downs also had catches.

The Bees got a huge day on the ground. King ran for 137 yards on 17 carries. Vasquez added 131 yards on 15 attempts. Staples, Swanson, Brady Piper, Calvin Lee, Jaedyn Price and Jake Ackman all had multiple carries as SAU finished with 347 yards on the ground. It was the biggest rushing attack for the Bees since they rolled up 336 yards against Iowa Wesleyan in 2021.

Jake Strater led the defense with six tackles and an interception. Brock Mason and Rolando Sepulveda were each in on four tackles. Nolan Obert had a pair of sacks among his three tackles. Colin Gudella and Luke Vera were also each credited with three stops.

SAU will return home to host No. 12 Benedictine next Saturday at 1 p.m. at Jack and Pat Bush Stadium.