Bethel's hopes of an MIAC title were frozen out at the end of Saturday's game against St. John's, but the Royals got new life on Sunday afternoon. Photo by Caleb Williams, d3photography.com

By Joe Sager
D3sports.com

Bethel needed another weekend to get over last weekend.

That’s because the events of Saturday and Sunday had the Royals spinning.

First, Bethel led St. John’s for a majority of Saturday’s Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship game. The Royals were up by two scores for most of the contest and appeared poised to claim the title and a playoff berth.

Wrong.

The Johnnies scored a touchdown with one second left and added the PAT kick to grab the victory, conference crown and automatic playoff berth.

The loss rocked Bethel, which suddenly faced a stinging end of a successful 8-2 season.

Wrong.

About 24 hours later, the Royals got a new lease on life when they were awarded an at-large berth to the NCAA playoffs.

“It definitely was a crazy 24 hours,” Bethel junior quarterback Jaran Roste said.

“But, it’s the best kind of crazy ever,” Bethel coach Steve Johnson said.

Bethel was all set to avenge a 31-25 setback to St. John’s in Week 3, but Johnnies quarterback Chris Backes found 6-7 tight end Alex Larson for a 3-yard pass and he crashed into the snowy end zone to tie the game with a second left on the clock. Conor Pavelko converted the kick to stun the Royals. 

“Going into the game, the goal was to win it and we knew we’d be in for sure. It’s a rivalry game and for the MIAC championship,” Roste said. “Going into the game, stuff didn’t look great if we did lose. Even 20 or 30 minutes after the game, it almost didn’t set in that we lost that game.

After a while, it felt for a lot of seniors like it was their last game.

“We’re really fortunate that, 24 hours later, we are in the tournament and getting ready for Central,” he continued. “It’s a heartbreaking loss and it was a quick turnaround from having your season being over to having an opportunity to make the tournament and trying to prove the committee right. We want to make a run like we did in 2018 as an at-large team.”

While the Royals are grateful they were chosen for an at-large bid, they wanted to control their own fate.

“I don’t ever want our guys or myself to be griping. That’s easy. We understand you have to win to go. We felt like we’d be a good team in the tournament. We weren’t going to be whining and sad if we didn’t get in,” Johnson said. “I didn’t want to get my hopes up. But, we did know some things happened around the country where some teams lost to help our projections. It’s almost surreal that some good things happened for us to get in. When our name was put up there, we went from being sad to very grateful. I’ve been doing this for a long time. I went from having another potato chip, watching games on TV to having about 87 different things to do before bed that night.”

Bethel players are embracing their chance to be together for at least another week.

“It’s special. We’re going to cherish it, top to bottom,” Roste said. “We are happy to get one more week. Hopefully, on Saturday, we can turn it into another week. We will have to fight for it against a great Central team.”

The Royals visit No. 9 Central (10-0), which has the nation’s top offense at 620.1 yards per game.

“We’re very grateful we have another opportunity to continue to grow and an opportunity to have an adventure, which is really cool,” Johnson said. “We know them really well. (Central coach) Jeff (McMartin) and I have been friends for a long time. The strength of that program is amazing. They are scarier than heck. Their quarterback (Blaine Hawkins) throws for 50 touchdowns. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking that’s five per game.

“But, we’re not just happy to be there. Every opportunity and chance you get to play a football game, it’s great. It’s really fun to play different teams, too.”

Bethel is looking forward to the challenge.

“When you look at our team, we’re 8-2 and every game in the MIAC is tough. We lost to St. John’s twice by a total of seven points and they are essentially a No. 1 seed in their region,” Roste said. “We’re right there against one of the best teams in the nation and I think that makes us one of the best teams in the nation. Everyone is 0-0 now. You just have to win the game in front of you and survive and advance. That’s kind of our mentality now.”