Simpson comeback falls short against Buena Vista

STORM LAKE, Iowa - The Simpson football team scored a late touchdown and recovered an onside kick but missed a field goal in the final seconds, losing to Buena Vista 29-27 on Saturday.

Down by two with under a minute left, Simpson recovered an onside kick and drove 36 yards to the Buena Vista 18 before stalling and bringing on the field goal team.

Brian Schaaf just missed the 35-yarder as Buena Vista won its fourth in a row.

"We had our chances today, we just didn't capitalize on them," head coach Jim Glogowski said. "We were just a little off in all three phases of the game."

Simpson played a clean game, going without a turnover after commiting four in last week's 45-40 loss to Dubuque.

"This was a a great game between two, evenly-matched teams," Glogowski said. "We had some great performances but just missed some opportunities."

Bobby Brown threw for 145 yards and John Hill ran for 131 to lead the Beavers (4-5, 4-2 Iowa Conference).

With the win, Buena Vista moves into a tie for second place in the conference with Central. Entering the day, Simpson, Buena Vista, Central and Wartburg were tied with identical 3-2 league records.

Simpson trailed 29-21 before Taylor Rogers made an 8-yard touchdown catch on a shallow crossing route with 56 seconds left. But the ensuing 2-point conversion failed.

Brad Vogel set a school record with 20 catches, Taylor Nelson threw for 369 yards and four touchdowns and Rogers made 12 catches for 120 yards for the Storm (5-4, 3-3), who lost their third-straight game after starting the season 5-1.

No stranger to close games, four of Simpson's conference games have been decided by five points or less. The last two losses have been by a combined seven points.

"Most of the teams in our conference are evenly-matched," Glogowski said. "When that is the case, the game is going to come down to a couple of plays here and there. It can go either way."

Simpson took a 21-13 lead in the third quarter on Brad Vogel's second touchdown catch. Bryce Bintner made it 21-16 when he made a 30-yard field goal on the ensuing possession.

Brown put Buena Vista ahead with a touchdown pass to Logan Lehrkamp in the fourth quarter. A failed two-point conversion left the score 22-21.

Immediately following a missed 32-yard field goal by Simpson, Dylan Barrett ran 80 yards to give the Beavers a 29-21 lead.

Brady Randall had a game-high 15 tackles for Buena Vista, adding 1 ½ of the team's four sacks. Ted Haag led Simpson with seven tackles.

For the second game in a row, Simpson's defense was held without a sack.

Simpson closes the season next week when it hosts Luther on Senior Day. Kickoff is set for 3 p.m.

Notes: Vogel's 20 catches broke Jim Henderson's record of 17 set in 1966 ... Vogel went over 1,000 yards receiving on the year (1,028), the fifth receiver in school history to reach the mark and first since 2004 ... Rogers needs 73 yards in Saturday's final game to reach the 1,000-yard mark as well ... Nelson ended the game with 7,299 yards of total offense in his career, just nine yards away from passing Mike Donnenwerth (2000-03) for the most in school history.