Spearfish, S.D. -- Many of the Carroll College football players were just happy to be playing an opponent other than themselves on Saturday.

They rode home a little happier after stinging the Black Hills State Yellow Jackets 28-3 in both teams' season opener.

The Saints, who begin their drive for five as the four-time defending NAIA national champions, had an all-around victory as they advanced for 471 yards on offense while holding Black Hills State to just 146.

"We came out excited and ready to play," said senior linebacker Josh Schmidt. "It's been a long time since we played a game."

And it took them a little while to get back into the swing of things. In their first series with the ball, the Saints pushed for more than 50-yards to get within the Yellow Jackets 35-yard line, but then came to a sudden halt.

Black Hills' Talon Tucker found room and snuck up behind Carroll quarterback John Barnett to catch him for a loss; the Saints were penalized for a false start on the next play; after that running back Jed Thomas was stuffed just past the line of scrimmage and Travis Browne dropped two passes in a row, the second on a fourth down.

"I felt like we were going just awesome at times and then pretty bad sometimes," Barnett said. "The mistakes we made are easily correctable, it's all just mental. You can't practice at game speed."

The Saints started feeling the faster tempo of the game at the end of the first quarter.

After running back Jed Thomas caught a pass and broke down the sidelines for 24 yards, then rushed through the defense for six more, Barnett ran to complete a first down. The quarter came to an end and Carroll set up with 15 yards to the goal line.

On the snap, Barnett dropped back and saw wide receiver Bryce Doak breaking away from his defender in the back of the end zone. Barnett threw a bullet and Doak dove out of bounds to catch it but kept his toes barely inside for the touchdown.

The spectacular catch, which sent more than 100 Carroll fans in a frenzy, ended a little awry when Doak's head and shoulder collided with the goal post. The self-sacrifice turned cheers quickly into groans, but Doak's teammates picked him up and celebrated the first touchdown of the year.

"I think it rattled (Doak) a little bit, but once he saw it was a touchdown he was OK," said Saints head coach, Mike Van Diest.

The Saints kept sending the ball through the air as Barnett completed 15-of-26 passes for 220 yards and the touchdown pass.

The junior quarterback, who has had the difficult responsibility of four-year starter Tyler Emmert, also rushed for two more.

"I was really pleased with how he played," Van Diest said about Barnett.

"When he threw the ball, he threw the ball on the money. I was really impressed with his decision making, with how he ran the football. "For the first game out (the offense) did a good a job against a tough defense."

It was an especially important victory for the offensive line, which provided the pass protection Barnett needed and opened up the lanes for the running backs.

The O-line, which graduated four seniors last year and returned only junior Bryson Pelc, has been a concern for the Saints since spring practices.

On Saturday, however, they didn't budge.

"(The Yellow Jackets) were blitzing at times too, and the line picked up a lot of blitzes," Barnett said.

While they were able to open up some holes, they weren't able to stop a tough corps of Black Hills' linebackers from blocking the rush.

Senior running back Ryan Grosulak was met at the line of scrimmage nearly every running play, but was also able to push for 31 yards on 12 carries.

In the second quarter, Grosulak busted up the center for three yards, waited another play and then ran to the outside.

There, he stiff-armed a defensive back after five yards, then another after 10 and was finally hauled down out of bounds for a 13-yard carry. The run brought Carroll onto Black Hills' 26-yard line and from there Barnett was able to complete a 25-yard pass before walking it in for the team's second touchdown.

Grosulak's running mate, Thomas, had better luck bouncing through the defensive line. He rushed for 75 yards on eight carries and had two receptions for 42 yards and ended the team's scoring with a touchdown in the fourth quarter.

"I thought Ryan ran really hard, he broke some great tackles, and had a great run to set us up for a touchdown," Van Diest said. "Jed had so many great moves out there in the open field and made some great cuts, I thought that was impressive."

While the offense lit up the scoreboard, Carroll's defense was fighting with the Yellow Jackets' fullback, big Mike Vomhof.

The 6-foot-3, 245-pound senior pounded his way through the defense for 57 yards on eight plays, but was kept in check by one of Carroll's youngsters, Owen Koeppen.

Koeppen, a 6-foot-2, 238-pound sophomore, met face-to-face with Vomhof on Carroll's own 43-yard line and stood the fullback straight up before pulling him to the ground.

The hit helped to eventually stop a 9 minute, 6 second drive that ended with Black Hills kicking a 39-yard field goal in the end of the second quarter, their only points of the game.

The Saints held Black Hills State to 71 yards on the ground off of 33 carries.

Senior corner Matt Thomas and junior Nick Milodragovich, meanwhile, stole the Yellow Jackets of their best opportunity of a touchdown.

With nine yards to the goal line, Black Hills' quarterback, Erik Osborne, attempted two passes to receiver Kyle Gerik in the corner of the end-zone but Thomas was there with pressure. Both were incomplete.

When Osborne decided on the fourth down to throw wide to Joe Beehler instead, Milodragovich was right there to stop him.

Osborne finished the game with just 10-for-23 with 69 yards and -3 rushing.

All in all, it was a good day but the defense still needs work, Schmidt said.

They had some penalties, missed a few tackles and -- while they study game film religiously -- also need to communicate what is happening on the field a little better.

"There's a couple spots there where one of us would have known what wascoming and we just needed to communicate it across the board," Schmidt said. "That's going to come with time. In the first game, we've got to get the jitters out and the kinks."

The Saints continually tested their own strength throughout the game. They tried for -- and were stopped on -- three fourth-down plays, including the attempt on the first series and a fake field goal. In both situations, Carroll found themselves facing the wind while at the edges of field goal range.

"Nothing against Blacks Hills State, but this is the time of year to try that," Van Diest said. "We tested out some guys to see how they stand up."

In the end, the team stood up just fine.