Explosive Coe offense blows out Cornell in college football season opener

MOUNT VERNON — Coe Coach Tyler Staker isn’t sure if what he witnessed was his team’s true identity.

He certainly wouldn’t mind if his Kohawks adopted the big-play, powder-keg like offense they displayed in the opener.

Coe amassed 710 total yards of offense and tallied five touchdowns of 48 yards or longer, scorching Cornell, 56-6, in the Bremner Cup series football game Saturday at Van Metre Field of Ash Park.

“We had a lot of explosive plays on offense and those proved to be difference makes,” Staker said. “You get a lot of explosive plays and take care of the football, then you win most of those contests.”

The big plays happened early and often for the Kohawks. On their first play from scrimmage, Dom Shepardson took a short pass from quarterback Carter Maske, made a tackler miss and bolted down the sideline for a 48-yard TD reception. The play was a result of him studying his past performances and learning what he needed to do better.

“For me, it’s about visualization,” Shepardson said. “It felt great to execute that at a high level.”

Maske and Shepardson connected for four touchdowns, including a 67-yard score on Coe’s second drive. Maske hit Shepardson in stride on a post pattern and Shepardson pulled away from Ram defenders.

“We wanted to fly around,” Shepardson said. “We wanted to have fun. We just wanted to attack and win.”

Shepardson is coming off a record-setting season, hauling in 79 receptions a year ago. He tied a school record with four receiving TDs in a game, joining Neil Suckow (2005), Brian Collier (1996) and Darrell Gordon (1992).

Shepardson also reeled in two 28-yard TD catches that bracketed halftime. The first came with 49 seconds before the break and the next was with 11:17 to go in the third for a 35-0 lead.

The 5-foot-11, 200-pound wideout finished with seven catches for 182 yards, while Maske completed 15 of 22 passes and 285 of the Kohawks’ 410 passing yards.

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“We have a crew to make a lot of big plays,” Maske said. “Zamari (Bruce) is a specimen and Amel (Saric) is super reliable. Cooper Zeck is good, too.

“It just makes my job easier. It’s very good to have them. At this level, you can’t find that as much as you do here.”

Backup quarterback Caden Mata passed for two scores, hitting Jeron Senters for a 3-yard TD and Devon Kollasch for an 81-yard scoring strike.

“Offensively, you take what the defense gives you,” Staker said. “We do have some explosive weapons on the perimeter. We had some opportunities to go over the top. I don’t know if that was our offensive game plan going into the game.”

The Kohawks rushed for 310 yards, including 184 and two long TD runs from Jacob Brecht. He scored on jaunts of 71 and 87 yards in the second and fourth quarters, respectively.

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“It’s always good to help the team,” Brecht said. “We practice to break stuff. It’s good to see the hard work pay off for all the RBs (running backs).

“I had good blocks on the outside, but I saw a cut-back lane for the first run. I just took it. I had Amel running with me to set up a block. He got a good block and it was great blocking all the way around.”

Brecht had his best game since his prep days at Benton Community. He already surpassed last year’s rushing yards total and matched his TD production.

“We have a great room of running backs,” Brecht said. “Whatever I can do to help the team is fine by me. We’re just a family, so if one succeeds, we all succeed.”

Coe’s aggressive and hard-hitting defense stifled the Rams, allowing just 115 yards of total offense and less than 2 yards per carry. Cornell’s lone score came on a 55-yard punt return by Trey Birdsong with 15 seconds left in the third.

“Defense did a good job,” Staker said. “Defensively, I thought our guys played hard and fast. We had quite a few plays where our safeties came off the hash and made some plays on a receiver where they were dislodging the ball from the man.”

The Kohawks extended their win streak in the series to 23 straight, dating back to 2000. They own a 77-51-4 record in the series that began in 1891. The last six meetings have been decided by an average of 40.2 points per game.

“That’s the expectation now,” Maske said. “I think this whole week we went without mentioning it. We knew what we should do today and did it.

“It’s usually a good way to start off the season.”

Coe hosts Wisconsin-Eau Claire at Clark Field next Saturday. Cornell hosts Lawrence.

Comments: kj.pilcher@thegazette.com