Simpson College held a 21-7 lead in the second quarter before Buena Vista caught fire, scoring 21 unanswered points over the final 1:52 of the first half to take a 28-21 halftime lead, and the Beavers would come up big defensively at the end, defeating the Storm, 38-31.

It was a wild series of events that unfolded at the end of the first half, which saw momentum shift drastically in the game.

Trailing 21-7, BVU quarterback Bobby Brown connected with Gunner Gilland from two yards out to get the Beavers within 21-14 with 1:52 left in the half.

On the ensuing kick-off, Tyler Stolen's kick bounced at the Simpson 26-yard line with no one giving chase, and the Beavers would recover the kick deep in Storm terriroty at the 26 yard-line.  Two plays later, Brown again found Gilland from 26 yards out, and Stolen's PAT tied the game at 21-21 with only 11 more ticks running off the clock.

The Beaver defense then rose to the occassion on the ensuing Simpson drive, as defensive back Ryan Anderson took a ball away that was simultaneously caught between him and a Simpson receiver, resulting in an interception and giving BVU the ball back at its own 38-yard line with 1:26 to go.

The offense was again able to capitalize, as it marched down the field in seven plays, capped by 25-yard strike from Brown to Ben Seitz, which gave the Beavers their first lead of the day at 28-21 following Stolen's PAT.

BVU won the toss and defered to the second half, so the offense had the ball in its possession yet again and went 62 yards in eight plays, setting up Stolen's 30-yard field goal, less than three minutes into the second half.

The Beavers tacked on the only other points in the third quarter when Brown, who finished with 392 yards passing, connected with Adam Cave up the near sideline for a 47-yard touchdown.  Stolen's PAT gave BVU its biggest lead of the game at 38-21 with 5:21 left in the third quarter.

Simpson slowly began creeping its way back into the game, getting a 34-yard field goal seconds into the fourth quarter to pull the Storm within 38-24.  Midway through the quarter, it became a one score game after Dylan Bereky found Corbin Clark for the second time in the contest, this time frim nine yards out to make it 38-31.

BVU looked poise to run out the clock after marching down to the Simpson 36-yard line before the Storm forced and recovered a key fumble with 2:18 left.

Two plays into the drive, Berkey completed a 25-yard pass to Clark down to the BVU 36 before a 14-yard catch five plays later put the Storm down at the Beaver 11 with only 35 seconds left.

BVU then called a timeout to regroup, and on the first play out of the huddle, Berkey was intercepted at the seven yard-line by Derek Schwartz, who simply turned and slid down to the ground as the Beavers took over on downs and would take a knee to run out the clock.

It was the second key interception recorded by BVU during the quarter as Anderson came up with a huge interception in the end-zone on a fourth-and-16 play midway through the period to maintain the one-score game.

It was a record-setting day for Gilland, who finished with a school single-game record of 15 catches and a record-setting 236 yards receiving.  Adam Cave (2013) and Tracy Golly (1985) held the previous mark of 11 catches, while Jalen Henningsen held the previous mark for receiving yards (193) set last season in the Beavers' dramatic win against the Storm.

In addition to his two late first half scoring grabs, Gilland got BVU on the board with a two-yard TD grab across the back of the north end-zone with 5:53 left in the second.  He's now hauled in six touchdowns over the last two games.

Brown, meanwhile, completed 25-of-43 pass attempts for 392 yards and a career-high five touchdowns.  He's now thrown for 788 yards and nine touchdowns over the last two games.

His 25 completions were a new career-best, surpassing last week's total of 23, while his 43 attempts moved him past Chris Hawkins and into first on the all-time list.  He now has 923, breaking Hawkins' mark of 910.  His five TD passes move him within five of Rollie Wiebers' all-time mark of 49.

Cody Mowery took over for Dylan Barrett in the second quarter and led all players with 80 yards rushing on just 15 carries.

The Beavers finished with 506 yards of total offense against a Simpson defense that came in ranked first in the IIAC in points allowed per game (5.3) and was fourth in total defense, allowing 300 yards per contest.

Berkey passed for 304 yards and three touchdowns to help lead Simpson (3-1, 0-1 IIAC), while Tyler Kenny rushed for a team-high 60 yards on just seven carries.  Jordan Beem rushed the ball a team-high 12 times for 46 yards.  Clark hauled in 124 yards on only five catches and caught all three touchdown passes.

Anderson posted seven tackles, defensively, for BVU, but his two interceptions proved pivotal for the Beavers.  Beau Van Wechel tallied a team-leading 11 total tackles and also had one sack.  Austin Gibbs, last week's IIAC Defensive Player of the Week, followed with 10 stops, as Matt Schmidt had nine.

Shane Venteiche and Brandon Abernathy each totaled 10 tackles to lead Simpson.

Buena Vista is now 8-1 over the last two seasons when it has scored at least 29 points in a contest.  The win is also the fifth straight Iowa Conference victory for the Beavers dating back to last season and is also the third straight triumph over the Storm.

BVU improves to 2-2 overall (1-0 IIAC) and will look to make it six straight league wins when it travles to Loras College (1-3, 0-1 IIAC) next Saturday afternoon for a 1:00pm kick-off.  The Duhawks dropped their conference opener earlier today at Coe College, 36-10.