Lots of frustration for Coe in loss to Simpson

CEDAR RAPIDS - Coe College publicly announced Friday afternoon a campaign to raise money for $23 million worth of campus improvements, most of it on the athletics/recreation side.

It had a performance on the football field Saturday afternoon that definitely was worth $23 million ... in frustration.

The Kohawks couldn't get a key stop defensively, made a couple of key mistakes and dropped an 18-15 homecoming heartbreaker to Simpson before nearly 5,000 fans at Clark Field.

Coe will play for pride the rest of the way at 2-4 overall and 1-2 in the Iowa Conference, any hope of a league championship and corresponding NCAA Division III playoff berth all but officially kaput.

'Really not much to say. We let that one slip away,” said Coe Coach Steve Staker. 'Going in, we felt this was a game we had a chance to win. But that didn't happen.”

The simplest way to explain this one is that Simpson (3-3, 2-1) hogged the football the entire day, which was the reason it won. The Storm held a stunning time-of-possession advantage of 41:42 to 18:18.

Running back Jordan Beem rushed 34 times for 197 yards and two touchdowns. He'd pick up a few yards here, a few yards there, breaking away for scoring runs of 35 and 21 yards.

'We just struggled getting that off-tackle play stopped,” Staker said.

'It hurts, especially defensive wise,” said Coe linebacker Mark Atwater. 'We didn't play well enough, didn't give our offense enough opportunities. Yeah, we only gave up 18 points, but when you get into a position where you have a chance to get off the field with eight minutes left and yet let them grind seven minutes off the clock, it's frustrating. We are frustrated. Costly turnovers, costly penalties.”

A touchdown pass from Josh Rekers to Colton Storla and two-point conversion by by Elijah Phillips brought Coe within five points with 8:02 to go. But, as Atwater said, Coe's defense couldn't get its offense the ball back until there were 42.4 seconds left.

A late-hit call on a 3rd-and-20 play gave Simpson a humongous first down at one point. It was a late-hit penalty that helped Simpson score its first TD late in the second quarter, after a Coe muffed punt.

Taking over at its own 12, and with no timeouts, Rekers completed a 20-yard pass to Phillips, a 4-yarder to Storla, then a 34-yarder to Demetrius Harper that took the ball to the Simpson 30 and out of bounds with about 25 seconds left.

But Rekers was sacked by Simpson's Isaac Frazier (a former Marion prep) on the next play. A spike stopped the clock with 2 seconds left and gave Coe one last play, but Rekers' Hail Mary to the end zone was incomplete.

'I was little scared there, but we figured it out,” Frazier said. 'Coming off the edge, that was a huge play. Almost impossible for the offense to stop there. (Teammate) Clay Finley kind of hit the tackle, kind of held him a little bit to get him off me, so I could get in scot free. Got the sack. It worked out.”

'I just felt we made some costly mistakes,” Staker said. 'We had a couple of defensive penalties on third down that otherwise would have gotten us off the field ... We fumbled a punt to give them a score. Just those little things that can make a big difference in a ballgame.”

Coe played without a pair of starting offensive linemen and two of its top wide receivers, all out injured. The Kohawks are at Central next week.

'We've got to regroup and get some guys healthy,” Staker said.

l Comments: (319) 398-8259; jeff.johnson@thegazette.com