M State struck first on a 21 yard field goal from Carsen McKnight with just two seconds left in the first quarter.

The Spartans extended their lead to 10-0 at 13:19of the second quarter when Cooper connected with Isaac Freitag for a 76 yard touchdown pass and McKnight added the PAT kick.  Rochester pulled to within 10-7 when quarterback Ryan King hooked up with Yaach Chuol on a 4 yard TD pass with only 13 seconds remaining in the first half.

The second half was a defensive battle with the only points coming on a safety with 1:45 left in the game.  It was called when King was hit with an intentional grounding call in the end zone.

The Spartan special teams came up big with a pair of blocked field goal attempts in the second half.  They also blocked a Rochester punt in the game.  The Spartan defense forced five turnovers on the day.  M State turned the ball over four times, all interceptions.

Rondarius Gregory ran the ball 23 times for 134 yards and surpassed 1,000 yards on the season during the game.  Cooper completed 5-of-12 passes for 103 yards before leaving the game.  M State had 259 total yards in the game.

Rochester had 277 yards, with King throwing for 183 yards on 18-of-29 passing.  Chuol caught two passes for 50 yards.  Nine different receivers caught passes for the Yellowjackets, who finish 5-5 on the season.

The Spartans take a perfect 9-0 record and number one ranking in the nation into next week’s contest.