Be it a tale from a medieval story, two teams were set to battle in Storm Lake, the victor keeping their perfect record. The first half brought a back and forth contest, but by the second half, one team had enough and brought out the beast within.

Buena Vista welcomed to Storm Lake the Prairie Wolves of Nebraska Wesleyan for their 2019 homecoming game with eyes set on staying undefeated. Being 2-0 for the second time under head coach Grant Mollring, the Beavers were more than excited to fight for a chance to become 3-0. During the first half, they kept that dream alive.

The Beavers came out of the gate swinging in the first half thanks to sophomore Bryland Menicucci scoring a short 2 yard touchdown, and freshman Adrian Griffin blasting off for a 53 yard touchdown to make it 13-0 in the second quarter. The Beavers were unable to score in the red zone and had to settle for a field goal from 23 yards out to make it 16-0 before the Prairie Wolves could even score. With 15 seconds left in the first half, junior Jonathan Curti of Nebraska Wesleyan threw a 15 yard touchdown before they went to the locker room, keeping the Beavers at 16-7 at halftime.

With some momentum, the Beavers looked to keep the positive vibes into the second half. The third quarter brought only one score by the Prairie Wolves from Curti to sophomore Alex Mathis to make it 16-14. This only encouraged the Prairie Wolves in the 4th quarter. Just like the big bad wolf came to eat Little Red, the Prairie Wolves come to devour the Beavers. The Wolves scored with 42 seconds off the clock in the 4th quarter bringing the score to 22-16. Before anyone in J. Leslie Rollins stadium could breathe, the Prairie Wolves would score twice more in the 4th quarter, with a couple of 2 point conversions made, crushing the hopes of a Homecoming win for BVU by with a score of 37-16.

This loss makes it the 3rd year in a row where the Beavers would lose their homecoming game. The last homecoming win came in 2016 where the Beavers beat Luther 48-24. A positive from this game is the intensity the Beavers brought on the ground, recording 228 rushing yards compared to NWU’s 32. BVU’s rushing leader for this game was Griffin, who ran for 112 yards and a touchdown. In comparison, the Prairie Wolves recorded 441 yards in the air, which gave them more overall yards than the Beavers in this game.

Sophomore QB Dylan Laughlin had an up and down day, recording 112 passing yards, 8 completions, and 1 interception. Sophomore Reyes Lara III was only able to rattle off 15 yards, 2 completions, and an interception. Defensively, junior Michael Herwig had a day with 6 tackles, 0.5 sacks, and 1.5 tackles for loss for 2 yards, right behind junior Morris Aranda’s 8 tackle day. Finally, junior Eric Pacheco lead the Beavers in receiving yards with 83, but could not find his way to the end zone.

BVU falls to 2-1 overall and 0-1 in American Rivers Conference play. BVU will go on a road trip to Simpson College (2-1, 1-0 ARC) next week for their first road game since their dominant performance against the Hamline Pipers in the beginning of the season. That game is set to kickoff at 1 p.m. on September 28th.