Coe will host Monmouth in 1st-round NCAA D-III playoff football game

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Coe Kohawks get a home game in the first round of the NCAA Division III football playoffs. Not an easy game but a home game.

Coe drew Monmouth (Ill.) in its opener Saturday at Clark Field. Kickoff is at noon.

The teams are both 10-0 and champions of their respective leagues: Coe the Iowa Conference and Monmouth the Midwest Conference. The winner will play either St. Thomas (Minn.) or Northwestern (Minn.) in the second round.

St. Thomas was last year's national runner-up.

Coe finished an unbeaten regular season for the third time in school history by beating Simpson this past Saturday, 47-29. Former Cedar Rapids Kennedy prep Trevor Heitland had a career-high 238 yards rushing to up his season total to 1,619. He joined former NFL players Carey Bender and Fred Jackson as the only Kohawk running backs to ever hit the 1,500-yard mark for a season.

Monmouth is allowing just 8.4 points per game, which leads NCAA Division III. The Scots beat IIAC member Wartburg, 29-22, in the second week of the season.

The NCAA revealed the entire playoff bracket late Sunday afternoon. It included power Mount Union as an at-large entrant.

The Purple Raiders had a 112-game regular-season win streak snapped this past Saturday by John Carroll, which won the Ohio Athletic Conference championship. Mount Union has been in the past 11 national championship games and 15 of the last 16.

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