St. Ambrose surrendered three long touchdown passes and saw its unbeaten start in conference play come to an end in a 34-28 loss to Olivet Nazarene Saturday afternoon at Brady Street Stadium.

The Tigers scored on throws of 69, 82 and 74 yards to offset a big day from SAU running back Kaden King. King carried the ball 34 times for 205 yards to become the first Bee to rush for more than 200 yards since Jake Osterberger ran for 242 yards against Robert Morris during the 2017 campaign. He is also the first Bee back to record more than 30 carries in a game since Baylee Hopps had 33 attempts against Trinity International also in that 2017 season.

King also scored the team's first touchdown, on a 9-yard run, to tie the game at 7-7 midway through the first quarter.

But Olivet Nazarene (3-3, 2-1 MSFA) responded with two touchdowns early in the second quarter, the second of those the 69-yarder, to force St. Ambrose to play catch-up the rest of the way. 

SAU continued to battle back all afternoon. 

Trailing 20-7, and facing a 4th-and-goal from the 1-yard line, Tom Casey found Ben Gilbert with a touchdown pass to cut the halftime deficit to 20-14.

Following ONU's 82-yard touchdown, Ray Bouye III broke free for a 23-yard touchdown run to get SAU to within 27-21 with 4:15 left in the third quarter. The Tigers added their 74-yard scoring play with 4:02 left in the game.

Casey engineered a 13-play, 75-yard drive and found Yemi Ward with a 3-yard touchdown pass to cut the gap to 34-28 with just 27 seconds remaining.

After an unsuccessful onside kick, St. Ambrose forced a 3-and-out and got the ball back on its own 20-yard line with three seconds left. Casey's desperation heave down the sideline was intercepted to end the contest.

Behind King, the Bees finished with 241 yards on the ground and 409 yards of total offense. Behind the three long touchdowns, the Tigers rolled up 488 total yards.

Bouye (35 yards) and T'Nahleg Hall (11 yards) each had five carries in support of King. 

Casey completed 15-of-27 passes for 168 yards and the two scores. Justin Wright collected four catches for 68 yards while Ward had four catches for 29 yards. Gilbert had three receptions for 22 yards and Israel Taylor caught two passes for 24 yards.

Major Haas led the defense with nine total tackles, including a tackle for loss. He also forced a fumble that was recovered by Tyreece Morgan. Zak Alberts, Max Gourley and Jake Strater were each in on six tackles. Alberts also picked off a pass. Rolando Sepulveda was credited with five tackles and De'Viann Titus-Porter had four.

The Bees, now 2-4 overall and 2-1 in the MSFA Midwest League, will visit St. Francis (Ill.) next Saturday.