By GARY R. RASBERRY
grasberry@dailystandard.com
NEW BREMEN — It wasn’t the strongest outing that
his team could have had, but John Reed could smile a little
wider on Friday night.
After scoring just 26 points in the first two games of the season,
Coldwater got the offense rolling against New Bremen, posting
a 34-13 win over the Cardinals at Cardinal Field in Midwest
Athletic Conference action.
The win puts the Cavaliers at 3-0 and 2-0 in the MAC. The Cardinals
suffer their first MAC loss in the league opener and drop to
1-2 overall.
The Cavaliers piled up over 300 yards of offense against New
Bremen, using a strong running game to compliment a passing
game that showed great improvement after a rough first two weeks.
“We were improved tonight, no question,” said Reed.
“New Bremen did a good job defensively against us and
frustrated us in a lot of ways. That’s the best we’ve
played offensively but we obviously have to get a lot better
than that if we’re going to go down the road at all.”
Early on the Cardinal defense was able to chase Cav quarterback
Alex Hoyng out of the box, scoring a couple of early sacks and
forcing some rushed throws. Reed backed off the passing and
went to the running game, which paid immediate dividends.
With 2:02 left in the first quarter, Coldwater regained possession
off the punt at New Bremen’s 38. Josh Fullenkamp took
the handoff and scampered home for the long touchdown run to
start the scoring.
It looked like the Cardinals would answer with a four-minute
drive that went for 77 yards down to the Cavalier eight-yard
line before stalling. Quarterback Alex Leugers was forced from
the pocket and hit hard, fumbling the ball to give Coldwater
possession back.
After a trading of punts, Coldwater put together a sustained
drive that featured just one pass. Still lined out of the shotgun,
Hoyng handed off to either Fullenkamp or Ross Homan. Homan got
the last six calls in the huddle, picking up 36 yards and scoring
from a yard out to push the lead to 14-0 with 1:53 to go in
the second quarter.
Another fumble gave Coldwater a chance to put the game away
early. With the Cardinals looking for Homan or Fullenkamp, Hoyng
went airborne, completing 3-of-5 passes in the series, the last
going to Craig Wellman for the 10-yard touchdown score to make
it 21-0. Hoyng finished 11-for-18 for 138 yards.
“Our depth isn’t the way we would really like to
have it,” said New Bremen coach Howard Overman. “We’re
kind of green with some kids going both ways. ... I don’t
know if it was anything they did, not taking anything away from
Coldwater, we played a little tired.”
The Coldwater defense, shining in the two big wins to start
the season, did not lose its luster on Friday, kept the Cardinal
offense scoreless and forced three fumbles, recovering two.
“A lot of credit goes to New Bremen. They had a good plan,”
said Reed. “A lot of things they did exploited some of
the things we have been good at. You’ve got to give credit
to them.”
“You’ve got to give credit to Coldwater. That may
be the best defense I hopefully see this year,” said Overman.
“They’re pretty fast. When we thought we had something,
it was closed down. ... They react before it gets there. Offensively
we did some good things, but we just didn’t get the consistency
and again, I think you have to give that credit to Coldwater.”
New Bremen finally got on the board in the final quarter. The
first score came after Coldwater scored on a Kyle Schoenherr
76-yard punt return. On the ensuing kickoff, Kyle Jutte scatted
his way across the field for an 85-yard return with nine minutes
left.
The final score came on the Cardinals final drive when backup
quarterback Allan Webster drove the reserves 78 yards, getting
the final 14 on a touchdown pass to Scott Brackman.
Fullenkamp finished with 130 yards rushing and two scores for
Coldwater while Homan added 41 yards rushing. Jeff Thobe led
New Bremen with 61 yards rushing and Scott Steineman made three
catches for 52 yards, all coming on the final drive for New
Bremen.
Coldwater heads to Indiana on Friday to face Fort Wayne Elmhurst
while New Bremen travels to St. Henry to face the Redskins.
|
