(Written By: Nolan DeVriese, Athletic Communications Student Assistant)

PELLA, Iowa (Sept.17,2022) – The weather, roaring fans, and its opponent's ranking on paper did not deter the Loras College football team in their first American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) game of the 2022 season as the Duhawks (1-2, 1-0 A-R-C) stunned No. 12 Central College (2-1, 0-1 A-R-C) in a 38-35 win. The thrilling victory marked the first win against the Dutch since the 2015 season.
 
The Duhawks wasted no time in the scoring category, striking first with an 18-yard touchdown reception to Marty McGovern from Evan England with three minutes left in the opening quarter. The offense was driving up and down the field with 11 first downs, converting on 4-6 third down attempts, and the defense led by Mason Morris swarmed Central to recover a fumble and a couple of sacks from Milo Collier and Josh Kieffer helped the Duhawks power through the first half. England continued to have the hot hand in the first half with 164 passing yards and 21 completions on 26 attempts and the Duhawks were firing on all cylinders as halfway into the second quarter, Ty Bausch broke through and scored a two-yard touchdown to put the Duhawks up 14-7, the driving force the Duhawks needed to take the lead into the half.
 
Central tied the game and then took the lead to start the second half but later in the third quarter, England, who had been making plays on the ground and in the air all game, used his legs to score a touchdown and cut into the Dutch lead. Going into the fourth quarter down by a touchdown, the Duhawks needed a defensive stop and a forced fumble by Kieffer recovered by Jace Gwynn set up the Duhawks at Central's 41-yard line. Six plays later, England connected with Da'Mani Brown for a 13-yard reception to bring Loras within one, 27-28. Central kept knocking on their endzone, but Loras' defense held steady, coming away with another big play, this time an interception by Josh Rydberg to set up Loras in the red zone. The final touchdown was an eight-yard reception by McGovern for his second touchdown on the day and it was coming down to the wire heading into the final minutes of the fourth quarter. Central tacked on one more touchdown to tie the game 35-35 with less than a minute to play but England and company drove down to the Dutch's 28-yard line and set up the game-winning 37-yard field goal by true freshman Aidan Driscoll to upset Central and Loras claims the victory.
 
Kelion Pritchett led the Duhawks in rushing with 78 yards, while Michael Crawford led the Duhawks in receiving yards with 89.  England had 298 passing yards, three passing touchdowns and one rushing touchdown with a completion percentage of 72.3% and connected with eight different receivers. The defense was a big help in the ball game as three Duhawks came away with ten or more tackles with Kieffer leading the way in sacks with 2.5. The Duhawk defense had a total of 5.5 sacks on the day to disrupt the Central offense.
 
Both teams played fairly close in every statistical category but Loras led the time of possession with 32:29 and Central at 27:31, highlighting the dominant display to open league action.
 
The Duhawks have their home opener with Nebraska Wesleyan University on Saturday, Sept. 24, and look to ride the monumental win into the Rock Bowl. Kickoff set at 1:00pm.