Hunter Hoffman threw five first half touchdowns and Brady Ketchum added two more in the fourth quarter as the Central College football team beat Buena Vista 56-22 Saturday in a game heard live on 92.1 KRLS.

The Dutch bolted out to a 35-6 halftime lead as Hoffman threw touchdowns to five different receivers – Ryan Neu (his 11th straight game with a touchdown), Jeff Herbers, Nick Coble, Cam Schulte and Logan Mont.

But Hoffman also threw two interceptions in the first half, including a pick six, and struggled to find his footing in the second half as well. He tossed another pick six and lost a fumble as the Beavers climbed within 35-22 with nine minutes left in the game.

That’s when Ketchum entered the contest, and engineered three scoring drives to put the game on ice – touchdown passes to Schulte and Grant Nelson and a TD run by Josiah Villaneuva. Coach Jeff McMartin was frustrated by the 20-minute start to the second half when they were outscored 16-0, but says that it’s a 60-minute game and they did enough in the other 40-minutes to get the W.

“I’m happy for our guys. I’m happy for our seniors to go out in their last home game of the year. And I’m glad and excited that we’re 7-2. We won seven games last year and we have a chance to have a better season this year, so those are things to build on.”

Central racked up 525 yards of offense and limited BV to just 277. Hoffman was 21-of-32 for 258 yards and Herbers grabbed seven balls for 99 yards.

The Dutch will wrap up the 2023 season next Saturday at Simpson.