The Truman Football team roared back to form and scored 31-straight points to win their spring season opener over Southwest Baptist 38-20 on Thursday night.
The two teams traded touchdowns on their first four possessions of the game but a missed extra point by the Bearcats had Truman in front 14-13 after the first quarter.
With SBU marching again, quarterback Cooper Callis found Preston Carson for 28 yards to the Truman 12 but in the tackle, Ryan Olivas stripped the ball free and Reed McBroom took the recovery out to the Bulldog 23.
Truman would capitalize on that turnover later when Josh Scheiderer would connect for a 39-yard field goal to give Truman a 17-13 lead.
Jacob Morris would catch a 3-yard pass from Nolan Hair early in the third quarter to extend the lead to 11 and Jaylen Jefferson broke free for a 56-yard touchdown run after Truman stopped SBU on a fourth down play in the third quarter.
Jake Ellis put the game away when he hauled in a 21-yard pass from Hair midway through the fourth quarter.
Hair was 16-of-27 for 221 yards in his Bulldog debut with Zach Zerwig nabbing two catches for 65 yards and Dante Ruffin grabbing a pair for 40 yards.
The ground game was again strong for Truman. Cody Schrader had 29 carries for 121 yards and two scores while Jefferson added 78 yards on six attempts. In total, the Bulldogs rushed for 41 times to a tune of 253 yards and 6.2 per carry.
Callis finished the game for SBU with 376 yards passing and three touchdowns. He completed 29-of-38 with an interception. Curtis Cullard caught nine balls for 101 yards and two scores.
Truman will host William Jewell in the second game of the three-game pool play next Saturday night at Stokes Stadium.