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DUBUQUE, Iowa - The University of Dubuque football team for the second year in a row, fell victim to a late drive by the Buena Vista University Beavers in a hearbreaking loss on Chalmers Field by a 39-44 score. UD took a late lead 39-37 on a 34 yard Curtis Prull fieldgoal with 1:40 remaining in the game. The tenacious Beavers used just 1:01 to claw their way back into the lead on a couple of long pass plays and scored on a two yard run with :36 left in the game 44-39. A Shaun Grewal 32 yard kick-off return from the Spartan goal line gave the Spartans hope with :30 seconds left. A penalty pushed UD back and they ran four plays for just seven yards as the clock counted down to zero.
The game featured over 1,000 yards of total offense for the many fans in attendance. Four of the Spartan scoring drives were all under two minutes of possession time with the quickest strike being a one play, six second drive with time running out of the third period on a 25 yard pass from Zach Fry to Dylan Barrett. The offensive shootout lived up to it's pre-game hype. Of the 13 scoring drives in the Iowa Conference match-up, none lasted longer than 4:05. If you stepped away to grab a fresh bag of popcorn, you likely missed 1-2 scores.
Fry finished the afternoon throwing five touchdowns as he completed 23-36 pass attempts for 358 yards. His favorite two targets were Tyler Rutenbeck and Chris Bagley. Rutenbeck caught three touchdowns garbs from 32, 11, and 50 yards to end the afternoon with seven catches for 137 yards. Bagley caught seven for 114 yards and a 30 yard touchdown. The ground game was in favor of the Beavers where leading Rusher Dylan Barrett carried the ball 42 times for 220 yards and a pair of scores. Alec Arvanitakis carried the ball 18 times for the Spartans as he pounded out 79 hard yards for UD.
BV's quarterback was picked off twice by the Spartan defense with Eric Peterson and Blaine Snitker each grabbing the ball once. UD's Trevor Stauner appeared everywhere on the field to finish with a game high 18 tackles. Everett Schwer had 12 tackles including one for a loss of two yards, a pass break-up and a quarterback hurry. Snitker earned 11 tackles and had a .5 tackles for loss of two yards.
In special team Brayden Nuendorf kicked off seven times for 427 yards for an average of 61 yards. Mitch Michaelis punted five times for 157 yards which included a season long 58 yard boot to pin the Beavers deep on their side of the field. Grewal garnered 161 yards in kick returns in five attempts.
The Spartans (2-5 overall, 1-3 in IIAC) will face the Loras College Duhawks (2-5 overall, 1-3 in IIAC) next Saturday, Nov. 1 at The Rock Bowl in the Key City Clash. Kick-off is 1:00 p.m.