STORM LAKE, Iowa (Oct. 15, 2022) - The Buena Vista football team hosted Central College on Saturday afternoon in an American Rivers Conference showdown, but it was the Dutch scoring 14 unanswered fourth quarter points to pull away for a 52-27 victory.

The Dutch jumped out to an early 14-0 lead in the first five minutes of the game, but the Beavers had an answer of their own with an eight-yard touchdown run from Mason Griffith and a 73-yard touchdown catch from Jeremiah Powell to pull even late in the opening quarter.

Central outscored BVU 24-0 in the second quarter, which included a pair of one-yard quarterback sneaks into the endzone, and led 38-14 at the half.

BVU took advantage of a muffed punt early in the third quarter by the Dutch, and that helped spark momentum onto the Beaver side. On the first play from scrimmage after the muff from the Dutch 31-yardline, sophomore quarterback Zach Herrera conncted on a 31-yard touchdown to Dylan Laughlin to make it 38-21. The Beaver defense then held Central to a 3-and-out on the next drive, and would take over at their own 17.

Mason Griffth, who rushed for a team-high 102 yards and one touchdown, capped a nine-play, 83-yard drive with an 18-yard touchdown reception on 2nd-and-4. Griffith hauled in four passes for 36 yards and finished the game with 138 yards from scrimmage.

On the first play of the fourth quarter, Griffith took the hand-off and went left and appeared to be wrapped up for a short gain but would spin out of it, reverse the field for a 37-yard gain. The sensational run, however, was nullified on a chop block penalty, and two plays later, Herrera was intercepted and Reece Miller returned it 54 yards for a Central score. The Dutch later added an 11-yard touchdown pass with 6:04 left for the game's final score.

"There was great effort and pride shown by our guys," said BVU head coach Grant Mollring. "We got down early and could have checked it in but battled back to get the game tied at 14. The second quarter got away from us but we answered in the third quarter. I think the final momentum swung when mason griffith had an incredible long run but was called back by a penalty on our QB who was downfield giving great effort. We threw the pick-six on fourth down after that and our balloon deflated."

The Dutch (4-2, 2-2 A-R-C) finished with 449 yards of total offense while BVU was at 377. It was a balanced attack by both sides with each offense averaging just over 5.0 yards per play.

Herrera completed 12-of-21 attempts for 144 yards and two touchdowns but was intercepted three times. Seth Gallardo entered the game on the team's second drive and would complete 9-of-13 attempts for 115 yards and one touchdown as he played the remainder of the first half. Herrera took over again at the start of the second half.

Powell had 115 yards on four catches with 73 of those yards coming on his touchdown grab. Laughlin added 57 yards on five grabs, including one score.

Jeremy Woodward had a team-high eight tackles for the Beavers with Brandon Lance right behind a seven.

Buena Vista (2-5, 1-4 A-R-C) is back on the road next Saturday, October 22, at Nebraska Wesleyan for a 4:30 p.m. kick-off.