The Buena Vista football team tried to overcome a 17-0 first half deficit against visiting Simpson College on Saturday afternoon, but the Beavers came up just short in that attempt as they fell, 17-9.

The Storm got on the board in the first five minutes of the game, using a quick six-play, 66-yard drive, capped by a one-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-goal, to take a 7-0 lead.

That's how things stood until late in the first half when Simpson kicked a 33-yard field goal with 5:29 left and then got a 22-yard touchdown pass with just under a minute remaining to build the 17-point lead.

BVU did have just enough time to get on the board as time expired in the half when senior Tyler Stolen drilled a career-long 53-yard field goal that made it by plenty.  It's the second-longest in school history and just two yards shy of John Poole's school record set in 1980.

Stolen also added field goals of 24 and 20 yards in the second half to cut the deficit to a one possession game.

The Beaver defense stiffened up in the second half, allowing only 78 yards of total offense, as it chipped away at the Simpson lead.  It came up big midway in the fourth quarter when Nick Amundson intercepted a pass at the BVU one-yard line.

On the enusing possession, the Beavers drove down the field and got into the Simpson redzone looking for a potential game-tying touchdown drive.  It picked up four first downs on the drive, including a conversion of a fourth-and-one from the Storm 23.

It faced its second fourth-and-short play on the drive just moments later, and this time, quarterback Tory Beger's pass attempt to Jalen Henningsen in the back of the endzone was broken up nicely by the Simpson defender to avoid the score.

Simpson then took over on downs and ran one play, picking up nine yards before the game was halted and the stadium evacuated for one hour due to the threat of lightning in the area.

When the game resumed, Simpson converted its first down, but BVU managed to get the ball back at its own 34 yard-line with 1:25 left and no timeouts.

The Beavers got the benefit of a roughing the passer penalty after a completion of 11 yards to Henningsen, moving them down into Simpson territory with under a minute to play.  On the next play, however, from the Storm 44, Beger forced a pass under pressure and was intercepted with just over 40 seconds left.

Simpson had to take just one knee from there and was able to run the clock out without another snap.

BVU ran 23 more offensive plays than the Storm and held Simpson to just 1-of-12 on third downs, but couldn't convert its points into touchdowns.

Beger and Trevor Trunck combined to complete just 19-of-40 passing attempts for 201 yards.  Henningsen was on the receiving end of 10 of those for 121 yards.  In the process, he became the program's all-time receiving yards leader, surpassing Jesse Schmidt's previous mark of 2,314 yards (2002-05).

Cody Mowery had a solid game on the groud, carrying the ball 24 times for 85 yards.

Caleb Frye was 12-of-23 through the air for Simpson for 243 yards and a touchdown.  Braden Meints posted a team-high 74 yards rushing.

Griffin Reding, Zack Mueggenberg and Tyler Prescott each added eight tackles to help lead BVU, defensively.  Stolen also averaged better than 40 yards on seven punts.

Buena Vista dips to 0-4 on the year and 0-2 in Iowa Conference play.  It goes back on the road next Saturday for a game at Loras College at 1:00pm.