PELLA, Iowa — The Central College offense sprang to life but a fourth-quarter comeback faltered as Benedictine (Ill.) held on in a 21-19 opening-game football setback Saturday night.
Stymied most of the night, the Dutch erupted for two touchdowns in a span of 2:49 in the final period, but a potential game-tying two-point conversion pass fell incomplete with 6:00 left in the game.
Central never got another shot, even though Benedictine mishandled the ensuing kickoff and had to start from its own 2-yard line. A 23-yard pass completion on 3rd-and-9 kept alive an Eagles' drive that didn't end until the final whistle.
"We hurt ourselves," coach Jeff McMartin said. "We had some good plays and then we had some penalties. You can't do that. Give Benedictine credit, I thought they did a good job of stopping some of the things we wanted to run. But we just didn't execute."
Some of those mistakes came on defense as well, as the Dutch yielded TD passing strikes of 41 and 65 yards from Benedictine quarterback Ryan Sample. A botched 25-yard field goal try and a missed first-half extra point also proved costly.
Quarterback Riley Gray (sophomore, West Des Moines, Waukee HS), in his first collegiate start, got the Dutch on the board with 5:42 left in the first half on a 2-yard keeper, but Benedictine answered with a 12-play, 73-yard drive that put the Eagles up 14-6 at halftime. A TD on the first play of the fourth quarter stretched the lead to 21-6 before Central finally found a spark through the air. Gray capped a 14-play, 85-yard march with a 5-yard scoring run, then found tight end Mitchell Boerm (junior, Traer, North Tama HS) on a 6-yard TD toss.
Central, which mustered just 55 passing yards in the first three quarters, got 101 yards in the fourth as Gray completed 11-of-12 in the period. Wide receiver Sam Markham (sophomore, Atlantic) had six fourth-quarter receptions for 62 yards.
"We kind of got them on their heels a little bit," McMartin said. "When you're playing from behind, you change the tempo, you change things around a bit, sometimes that helps you."
For the night, Gray connected on 16 of 28 passes for 156 yards with one interception and one touchdown. Markham had eight catches for 75 yards while Boerm had five for 54 yards. Gray was also Central's top rusher with 43 on 12 carries. The Dutch had 109 yards on the ground overall.
However Benedictine countered with 407 yards of offense, including 340 passing yards. Sample completed 23-of-39 with one interception.
Linebacker Drew Carlson (junior, Ankeny) had a game-high12 tackles while linebacker Jessie Peterson (junior, Coralville, Iowa City West HS) had 10 stops and linebacker Mitch Schroeder (senior, Lowden, North Cedar HS) had seven tackles along with a fumble recovery and an interception.
Central travels to Monmouth, Ill. next Saturday, taking on Monmouth College in the first of three consecutive road games for the Dutch. Game time is 1 p.m. Monmouth handed Central one of its only two losses in 2014, a 28-21 setback at Pella. The Scots, under new head coach Chad Braun, were 31-19 winners at Hope College (Mich.) Saturday.
"Monmouth's a very good football team," McMartin said. "We played them last year and I thought they were outstanding. We're going to have to improve in every facet because there wasn't one part of our football game tonight where I feel we can walk away saying we're where we want to be. We need to improve."