The Hamline football offense came out of the chute firing in the 2018 season opener at Buena Vista Thursday night. QB Justice Spriggs threw for 326 yards and a pair of touchdowns as part of a 458 yard effort in a 39-27 loss to Buena Vista in Storm Lake, Iowa.

HU saw its winning streak of six openers come to an end in a free wheeling affair that ended with nearly 900 yards total offense. 

Spriggs, a senior, had a big part in this, tossing TD passes to Tanner Lunceford and Triston Thomas and running one in as well. Zach Reed provided the HU score when he returned a fumble for a score in the third quarter. 

HU hit quickly. On the second play of the season, Spriggs found Lunceford for a 70 yard score to give HU an early lead. It was the longest Piper pass play since Tim Bona hooked up with Naji El-Araby for an 83 yarder against St. Olaf on October 12, 2013. The homestanding Beavers shook that off to record a pair of scores but Spriggs neutralized that with a run of his own in the second quarter. 

BVU responded with a TD and led, 20-14, at halftime. 

Reed gave HU the lead when he snapped up a fumble and rumbled 25 yards for a score early in the third quarter. BVU rallied to go up 33-21 in the fourth quarter only to see Spriggs cap a 75 yard, 13 play drive with a strike to Thomas with 1:48 left to cut the margin to 33-27. Unfortunately, BVU recovered the ensuing onside kick and scored again to put the game out of reach. 

Spriggs ended the night eclipsing the 6,000 yard mark for career passing yards and the 500 barrier for career pass completions -- both of which are HU records. 

Adan Rodriguez led the defensive charge with eight tackles, including one for loss and added an interception. Luke Trudell added six stops (including a sack) and forced a pair of fumbles. 

HU will look to even the slate with the home opener September 8 against Macalester at Klas Field. The annual battle for The Bucket kicks off at 7:00 p.m.