FULTON, Mo.- In their last game of their second season, William Woods University football (1-10, 1-5 Heart) hosted familiar foe in Missouri Baptist University (4-6, 3-3 Heart) at the North Campus Athletic Complex on Saturday afternoon. Woods closed the first quarter of the game trailing by three points but eventually fell to a final score line of 52-17 in favor of the Spartans.  

Missouri Baptist opened the game with a brisk three play, 75-yard drive in their inaugural possession to take the early lead. The Owls responded just 14 seconds later on a 72-yard touchdown pass complete to Jalen Becerra. The six-foot-two wideout from Leander, Texas, hauled in the catch just past the sticks and managed to break a slew of tackles and outrun the secondary for The Woods' first touchdown of the game.  

The Spartans regained the lead the very next possession on a seven-play drive that resulted in a passing touchdown for the MBU field general Jacob Jones. The transfer play caller from Grambling State University found Jared Steward for the second touchdown of the day for the Spartans.  

Wood responded on a ten-play sequence that drove the length of the field that resulted in the Owls second endzone trip of the day on the legs of quarterback Dontae Rhodes. With just over a minute and a half left in the first half, the MBU kicker drilled a 49-yard field goal to take a 17-14 lead; that would hold until the end of the quarter. 

The rest of the game was all Missouri Baptist, as the Spartans scored 38 unanswered points throughout the second and third quarters. Woods recouped three points in the late moments of the game when Justin Sharkey split the uprights on a 27-yard field goal to seal the game at 52-17.  

Owls football returns in the fall of 2026, for their third season of competition; the second under head coach Sam Camp.