Box Score
DES MOINES – Lawrence Woods returned the second half kickoff 87-yards and Truman's defense was nearly perfect as the Bulldog Football team held on for a 10-7 season opening victory over Drake on Saturday night.

Josh Scheiderer matched his freshman season long with a 46-yard field goal in the second quarter to open the scoring and account for the only points of the first half.
The Bulldogs deferred after winning the coin toss and the second half kickoff was squibbed back to Woods at the 13 yardline. He gathered the ball and broke tackles along the
Truman sideline finally breaking loose and getting into the endzone for a 10-0 lead. It was his fifth career kick return for a touchdown breaking the Truman record previously held by Mike Laususe.

Scheiderer had a 48-yard attempt blocked later in the quarter and Drake used the momentum to sweep down the field for their only score of the night. The drive went for six plays and 68 yards with Drew Lauer catching a 10-yard screen pass from Ian Corwin to cut Truman's lead to 10-7 with 5:20 left in the third quarter.
From there it was a tense defensive finish.

Truman started three straight fourth quarter drives inside their own 20 yardline and coupled with penalties, was forced to punt in each possession. New punter Taylor Cornish was able to relieve the Drake pressure by averaging 44.2 yards on his eight boots with a pair of 50 yard punts in the fourth quarter.

Drake's last drive started at the Truman 48 with 3:23 to play. Lauer gained nine on first down but Travis Myerson broke up a deep pass to Devin Cates on second. Corwin missed Lauer on a short pass for third down to bring up fourth and one. On the play, Lauer charged up the middle but Jake Floyd and Eric Yakle were credited with the stuff.
The measurement put Drake six inches short of the line to gain and Truman took over at their own 39.

The purple Bulldogs milked the final two Drake timeouts with running plays and on third and six, Jordan Salima busted up the middle for seven yards and sealed Truman's first season opening win in five years.

Woods finished with a team-high eight tackles while Myerson and Floyd were one back with seven. The defense put Corwin to the turf five times behind the line of scrimmage with Floyd accounting for two of the sacks.Woods and Jaylen Jefferson were each credited with blocked kicks. Woods blocked a field goal attempt and Jefferson blocked a punt, each in the second quarter.

Salima finished with 61 yards on 17 attempts and two catches for seven. Jaden Barr was 12-of-18 for 85 yards and added 45 rushing yards.

It was also a record breaking night for Sam Reeves as he captured the career sacks record with one and a half to surpass Ernie Myerson previous total of 32. In addition, head coach Gregg Nesbitt won his 50^th game on the Truman sideline.

Truman will host Wayne State University out of Detroit, Michigan next Saturday at noon.