KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – The Truman State Football team picked up their fifth straight win and the program's 600^th victory by defeating Southwest Baptist on Saturday night 25-20. The Bulldogs become the eighth Division II program to score 600 wins all-time.
 
Grant Ross put the Bulldogs in front with a 45-yard field goal with 5:26 left in the first quarter.
 
The Bearcats, who had their opening possession end with a missed field goal from 37-yards found pay dirt on their next drive as Cooper Callis used a pair of deep passes, one for 34 yards and another to Marcus Manuel Jr. for 15 and a 7-3 lead with 41 seconds left in the quarter.
 
Truman went 51 yards on their next drive as quarterbacks Nolan Hair and Collin Sutton interchanged throughout the drive but had to settle for a 23-yard Ross field goal to cut the lead to 7-6.
 
SBU came right back on a 12-yard pass from Callis to Kylan Herrera and the Bearcats extended their lead to 14-6 with 5:13 left before half.
 
The Bulldogs took over later with 1:32 to go and Hair completed six straight passes down to the SBU one. Shamar Griffith would catch a pass out in the flat but the two-point conversion was no good and Truman was down 14-12 at the break.
 
Truman got the ball to start the third and promptly marched 84-yards in 10 plays with Hair finding Matt Hall in the right corner of the endzone but again the two-point failed and Truman led 18-14.
 
The defense forced a three and out, the only one of the night, but the punt by Logan Turner was downed inside the Bulldog one yardline.
 
The Bulldogs picked and pushed down the field and advanced 81 yards on 18 plays but came up empty on a missed field goal from Ross at 25-yards out.
 
The Bearcats went backwards on their first two plays of the next drive and faced a second and 22 from their own eight. Callis completed a couple of passes but on fourth and six were forced to punt. A running into the kicker flag and the earlier stop by the SBU defense, gave Coach Robert Clardy a chance to seize the momentum and go for it on fourth and one.
 
Running back Abel Carter, who finished with 109 yards on 23 carries, punched through the middle to move the chains.
 
SBU faced a fourth and two at their 41 and Callis completed a short pass to Jordan Kent to extend the drive.
 
On the 16^th play of the possession, Peyton Carr and Garret Linn broke through the line and brought Callis down for the only sack of the game to force a fourth and 12 from the Truman 15 with under two minutes to play.
 
After a timeout, Callis sailed a pass through the back of the endzone intended for Rodrick Weaver and Truman took over on downs.
 
Needing to force SBU to use their full complement of timeouts, Denim Cook busted a 50-yard run on the first play from scrimmage.  Cook ran the ball two more times to drain the TOs from the SBU side of the scoreboard and then on third and two, busted a 27-yard touchdown run to put Truman on top 25-14.
 
Not going away quietly, Callis and SBU raced down the field in 47 seconds with Preston Carson hauling in a six-yard TD pass with 11 seconds left. The two-point failed and the subsequent onside kick was recovered by Chris Kerr to seal the win.
 
Hair was 13-of-18 for 135 yards and two scores while adding 20 yards on four carries. Griffith had 21 attempts for 99 yards and Cook had 94 on six. Sutton had 57 rushing yards with 17 passing yards.
 
Hall made six catches for 74 yards and Tate Crane made five for 66.
 
Truman will head out on the road for their next two games as they will play William Jewell next Saturday afternoon in Liberty, Missouri.