Revenge is sweet. But victory is sweeter. On Sep. 3 at Strong Stadium, on a night that Bucs play-by-play announcer Matt Laszlo referred to as “muggy and buggy,” the Bucs football team cut through the humidity to defeat the Rockford University Regents 14-12, earning them the first win in the Battle of the Rock River and their first home victory since the 2023 season. The Bucs defense put up a sterling performance that began with the crunch of pads and ended with the splintering of wills. Beloit utilized their superior manpower by taking full advantage of the free substitution rule, plugging in a few new Bucs on each series to prevent injuries and fatigue. This created a relentless push akin to a snowplow powered by rocket fuel, tossing our Rock River counterparts out of its way like rag dolls. As it turns out, these new-look Bucs don’t mess around.
One minute and nineteen seconds on the clock, cowbells fall silent as the entire home and student sections stand on their tiptoes to see every inch of the play. The peach dusk has turned into a deep cobalt night. Fourth down and one yard to go. The Regents have no timeouts in their back pocket; they must convert. Under center, the man taking the snap is one Bucs fans know: last year’s woeful second-string quarterback Ben Parker. Parker announced via Instagram last spring that he was transferring to Rockford University after a 1-9 season with the Bucs in 2025. Many teammates and disciples of Bucs football were irked by Parker leaping off the ship and swimming across the river. After all, the Regents’ only win in 2025 was against Beloit College. Even in the insular world of Midwest Conference Football, a move like this is the definition of bulletin board material. However, to Parker’s credit, he had kept the Regents in the game long enough to get possession of the ball at their own 44-yard line with 3:26 left in the game and only a 2-point deficit.
After a short and attritional drive filled with runs up the middle, screens, and quarterback keepers, the Regents found themselves with a third down and five at the Bucs’ 40-yard line as the whistle blew for the two-minute warning. Parker took the snap and charged forth into the maw of the Bucs with every inch of his six-foot-two frame. A clutch tackle by Bucs linebacker Brayden Gonzalez’29 dragged Parker down short of the line to gain as the clock ran. The Regents called a timeout with 1:19 left in the ballgame. At this particular moment, the play-calling strategy of Rockford U’s offensive coordinator resembled your little brother playing Madden. If you gain yards on a play, simply run it again. This time, instead of gaining four yards, Parker was met behind the line of scrimmage by a grits blitz-esque posse of bull-rushing Bucs, driven back before he could even step forward. What followed was a millisecond of stunned silence, followed closely by an eruption. Tears were shed in the press box, and a new crop of Bucs football fans finally got a proper introduction for the first time since 2023; a plethora of Beloit gridiron greats of yore, watching from the home section, saw that this team could finally win again. Car horns blared in the grass parking lot of Strong Stadium, and cries of victory rang out up and down Chapin Street as fans made the pilgrimage back to their cars, homes, or dorms.
As it turns out, this euphoric release owed just as much to the victory as it did to the smash-mouth intensity and wire-to-wire tightness that typified the game. The contest began rather inauspiciously for the Bucs, as after a short completion from the new Bucs’ starting quarterback, Cypress, Tex.’s own Noah Carrasco’30 to receiver Kadir Battle’29, the unthinkable happened. An errant snap sailed over the head of Carrasco, and he was forced to dive on it for an 11-yard loss, derailing the Bucs’ opening drive. The two squads traded punts for the next couple of drives, but this was not an unwelcome sight, as punter Ian Ladd’29 had a day that would make Ray Guy blush. Ladd blasted the ball nine times on the day for an average of 37.8 yards per punt, registering two kicks of 50 yards or more. He also banged through both of his extra point attempts on the day as the Bucs’ kicker.
The drought soon expired as Parker marched the Regents down the field for a drive that culminated in a one-yard touchdown rush by Rockford back Malik Gordon. A blocked extra point attempt left the scoreline at 6-0 with 6:19 remaining in the first quarter. The Bucs’ next offensive drive stalled, but the defense did not budge, as a clutch pass breakup by cornerback JC Deary II’28 and a subsequent errant throw by Parker forced the Regents to punt. The first quarter finished with a volume of stingy defense but no scoring, as Carrasco was still finding his footing as a passer in his first collegiate game. After another Ladd punt to pin Rockford at their own 17-yard line, Parker showed a little fire, completing a 27-yard bomb deep down the sideline that was stopped from being an explosive play by Bucs’ linebacker Michael Snow’27, who was everywhere for the Bucs on a soupy September eve. Snow recorded 11 total tackles on the day, including six of his own. A snarling ship of Bucs responded on the next play by forcing a fumble on a screen pass from Parker at the Beloit 48 that would have gone for an eight-yard gain if not for the punch-out and recovery by cornerback Alex Klun’29, which gave the Bucs possession at the 48. Carrasco took this opportunity to show what he was made of, firing a deep strike into double cover that landed safely in the leaping arms of receiver Braeden Hoth’29 for a 37-yard bomb that set up the Bucs with a first down at the Rockford seven-yard line, aided by a roughing the passer penalty. The drive culminated in a back-of-the-endzone laser from Carrasco to Hoth for the freshman’s first collegiate touchdown pass. An extra point from Ladd gave the Bucs a 7-6 lead with 10:59 left in the half.
After a woeful Regents drive, Carrasco led another surgical march downfield midway through the second quarter that ended with a four-yard touchdown run by running back Deandre Fields’29 and an extra point by Ladd to put the Bucs up 14-6. A two-score lead! A reporter for The Round Table in the press box was left to wonder if this was really Bucs football. The Bucs coaching staff employed a running back-by-committee approach throughout the contest, with five Bucs running backs toting the rock at least once, and Carrasco adding 13 attempts on his own. Arturo Aguilera’30 was the workhorse of the group, averaging 4.4 yards per carry on seven carries. Elijah Grimsley’30 averaged a stunning 9.0 yards per carry on three attempts, and Anthony Sharp’28 contributed in the passing game in addition to a couple of handoffs.
The remainder of the first half was a physical period, as the Bucs defensive front tortured Parker all day, tattooing their shoulders into his chest to the tune of two sacks and numerous tackles for loss.
As the second half dawned and night fell over Strong Stadium, Parker and the Regents soon realized that the Bucs defense was simply too dominant to run the ball, resorting to short passes and bubble screens that were similarly snuffed out. Rockford’s first offensive drive of the first half was abruptly ended by an interception by Bucs defensive back David Howard III’30 to set up the Bucs at their own 26. The teams traded punts once more until the Regents took advantage of a Bucs fumble in the red zone after a promising drive. Rockford punched it in to narrow the scoreline at 14-12 on a six yard touchdown run on fourth down and four yards to go, a devastating turn for the home crowd. It couldn’t happen again, not after all this improvement — not another collapse.
Luckily, a stellar defensive stand by the Bucs to smother Rockford’s 2-point conversion attempt (intended to tie the game) assuaged the concerns of fans and left the scoreline at 14-12. Carrasco showed more poise in the pocket and delivered decisive short and intermediate throws on the following drive, but momentum was zapped after Fields was stuffed for a one yard gain on a third and five inside Regents territory. In the third and fourth quarter, Ladd adeptly shot line drives and high knuckle balls that mystified Rockford return men and pinned the Bucs opponents to field positions that they could not recover from.
At the start of the fourth quarter, Parker led the Regents into Bucs territory again but was stifled after he was sacked on a fourth and one for a five yard loss resulting in a turnover on downs. It seemed as though Parker could not receive the likely slick ball from his center’s marshy posterior without facing a gaggle of Bucs directly in his face.
Rockford had no answer for freshman stud runner Aguilera, who had the hot hand during the fourth quarter, grinding down the resilience of the Regents defense and bursting through tackles into the secondary. Aguilera’s stellar runs set up a 37-yard field goal attempt from Ladd with 7:41 left on the clock. Ladd’s attempt was a low line drive that Bucs play-by-play announcer Matt Laszlo initially thought cleared the crossbar, but it ended up drifting wide left and short. Perturbed but resolute, the Bucs defense continued to stifle the Regents’ run game, with defensive lineman Josh Martinez sealing gaps and swarming the backfield. These decisive plays, as well as a false start penalty, slayed Rockford’s fledgling momentum.
Taking over at their own 33 with 5:37 remaining, the Bucs failed to close the game out and were forced to punt back to Rockford with 3:26 left and gift them favorable field position at their aforementioned 44-yard line. Parker did his best to take revenge on his former school, but his offensive line was battered and broken; the Bucs’ defense had ground them down to a powder. Throughout the game, Rockford had to take lengthy injury timeouts from cramping, writhing players, worn out by unforgiving environs. Parker scrambled wildly on that final drive and plunged headlong into the opposing defensive line with abandon. He alone could not be a bulwark against his team’s collective fatigue and failure. Following the decisive tackle for loss on fourth down, Carrasco jogged back onto the field to a jubilant crowd to kneel out the final seconds of the game.
A new era has been birthed from the ashes of a losing culture. These freshmen do not know we’re supposed to lose and lose badly; they just know they want to win. If these young Bucs can show that kind of resilience, passion and toughness, you should be following their exploits closely as they go on the road to face Cornell College on Sep. 12.
Featured image: Cian McKeown’27
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