The Buena Vista football team overcame its early first quarter deficit on Saturday against visiting Nebraska Wesleyan, by scoring 24 second half points en route to a thrilling 38-31 victory on Senior Day.

Junior running back Cody Mowery turned in a pair of rushing touchdowns for BVU while senior wide receiver Jalen Henningsen hauled in two more.

It was all Prairie Wolves in the first quarter, however, as they scored on a nine-yard touchdown pass on the final play of the quarter to go up 10-0.  In the quarter, they ran 27 offensive plays compared to only five for BVU.

The Beavers then found their life to start the second quarter when junior running back Cody Mowery found a burst up the middle and ran for a 31-yard touchdown to make it a 10-7 contest.

NWU responded midway through the second quarter with a one-yard touchdown run to push it back to a 10-point lead.  BVU then took momentum into the locker room after Henningsen caught the first of his two touchdowns with just over 2:00 left to make it 17-14 before a last-second field goal attempt by the Prairie Wolves bounced off the right post and was no good.

BVU got the ball to start the second half and went 92 yards in 12 plays, capped by quarterback Cole Miller's three-yard touchdown run, to take its first lead of the day at 21-17.

Later in the quarter, the Beaver special teams came up big with a blocked field goal attempt which in turn led to an 80-yard touchdown drive and a 28-yard touchdown pass from Miller to Henningsen to make it 28-17.

Just over a minute later, the Prairie Wolves made it 28-24 with a long 60-yard touchdown strike.

Senior Tyler Stolen added some key insurance points with a 24-yard field goal before Mowery added a 20-yard touhchdown run with just over 2:46 left to make it a 38-24 contest.

The Prairie Wolves weren't going down without a fight, however, as they got a three-yard touchdown pass with 1:17 left to make it a one-score game.  They then proceeded to recover a perfect onside kick attempt, but senior Justin Kahl came up big with an interception to hault the drive.

NWU (3-6, 2-5 IIAC) had one last chance but with three seconds left, Jake Staudt would record the only sack for BVU on the day right before NWU was able to attempt a hail mary attempt.

Mowery carried the ball 26 times for 143 yards and the two scores while adding three catches for 67 more.

Henningsen hauled in seven catches for 133, and in the process, matched his career-high with 66 catches on the year.  That is the second-most in school history, and he needs one catch in his final career game next week to equal the record set two years ago by Gunner Gilland.  He is also 69 yards shy of becoming the first player in program history to reach 3,000 career receiving yards.

Miller completed 14-of-21 pass attempts for 265 yards and two touchdowns while being intercepted once.

Kahl turned in a team-leading 11 tackles in the contest with Nick Novotny right behind at 10.  Nick Amundson registered nine tackles and had four pass breakups. 

The Beavers improve to 3-6 overall (3-4 IIAC) and can finish in the top-four of the league standings with a road win next Saturday at Wartburg (6-3, 4-3 IIAC).  The Knights fell at home in overtime, 28-27, to Luther College on Saturday.