Trenton Barnes carries the load in Coe’s college football win over Dubuque

CEDAR RAPIDS – Trenton Barnes deserves a day off.

At least, get the man a nice long ice bath.

Coe’s starting running back produced a workmanlike effort, rushing for 185 yards on a whopping 42 carries and helping Coe pull away in the second half for a 27-10 victory over University of Dubuque in an American Rivers Conference game Saturday at Clark Field.

“I love being the every-down back to rely on,” said Barnes, who has 526 rushing yards and five touchdowns this season. “I think that’s the most for me in one game. Surprisingly, I feel pretty solid, right now.”

The Kohawks (4-0, 2-0 A-R-C) beat the Spartans for a second straight season but won at home for the first time since 2009. Coe also snapped a string of five one-score games against Dubuque. They did it with a strong second half, breaking a 3-3 tie with touchdowns on their first two possessions and points on four of five drives after the break.

“I was really proud of our guys because the first half was tough sledding,” said Coe Coach Tyler Staker, who earned his 55 th career win to tie his late father and former Coe Coach, Steve Staker, on the all-time list. “We just couldn’t get over the hump to get things going.

“We stuck to our ground game. We stuck to playing a physical brand of football and that’s what we want to do.”

Barnes tied Carey Bender for third for single-game carries. Trevor Heitland holds the record with 51 against Dubuque in 2016. He also had 50 against Monmouth (Ill.) College that season. Barnes has been a reliable backfield leader this year.

“Trenton Barnes was a warrior today,” Staker said. “It was great to see him perform like that his senior year. We’ve got a good thing in Trenton Barnes.”

Barnes played helped Kohawk drive the field to start the third, carrying five times in the 10-play, 75-yard drive. Clay Krousie, who connected on key completions to Will Hiserote and two to Jeron Senters, capped the drive with a 7-yard keeper for the first TD of the game.

“Clay does a good job of offsetting the run with some timely pulls.” Staker said. “It gets you thinking on defense and slows you down a little bit.”

On the next drive, the Kohawks covered 54 yards on 11 plays, including six Barnes rushes. Those carries helped set up the second touchdown. Coe burned a Spartan blitz with a Krousie swing pass to a wide open Barnes, who went eight yards untouched for a 17-3 lead with 5:42 left in the third.

“I just saw green,” Barnes said. “Once we called it, I was like they haven’t seen me out here all day. It’s going to be a touchdown.

“Clay threw a perfect ball. It was money.”

Krousie also hit Senters for a 19-yard touchdown in the fourth. He finished with 194 total yards, including 148 passing and accounted for three TDs.

Coe rushed for 245 yards on 58 carries. The offensive line won the battle in the trenches most of the day and seemed to wear down the Spartans after halftime.

“We have pride in our run game,” Barnes said. “We like that to be our identity of our offense. The big dogs up front were pushing the line of scrimmage all day. It was all because of them.”

Coe’s defense was rock solid, again. The Kohawks bent slightly but only broke once, allowing a 10-yard TD pass from former Mount Vernon prep Joey Rhomberg to Za’Cameron Brice with 2:23 left in the third. Rhomberg passed 144 yards on 10-of-26 passing.

Coe stymied the Spartans run game, limiting them to just negative-30 yards on the ground. They harassed Dubuque’s quarterbacks, knocking out starter Ben Gultig on a sandwich sack by Alex Aitchison and Mitch Helmkamp late in the second quarter. It forced Dubuque to settle for a Joseph Xiya 36-yard field goal to get on the scoreboard.

Staker praised the Kohawk defense for playing well as the offense struggled to click.

“We got after the quarterback,” Staker said. “I felt our defense played phenomenal. They have a great offense and some tough weapons. They mix up their tempos.

“I thought (defensive coordinator) Coach (Cody) Baethke did a great job getting our guys prepared. We kept the quarterback out of rhythm. We got to him and put some hits on him, so that was important to us.”

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After the game, Staker’s picture was on the videoboard highlighting his win and matching his father is memorialized at the bottom of the structure. He received a quick hug from a daughter, who told him good job.

“It’s pretty cool but it’s also a testament to the coaches and players we’ve had in our program,” Staker said with a wide, beaming smile. “You don’t do that without good people. We’ve got really good people here at Coe.”

Coe travels to Dubuque to face Loras next week.

Comments: kj.pilcher@thegazette.com