Coe football team finishes regular season 9-1, has to wait a week to find out if it’s a playoff team

CEDAR RAPIDS — And now they wait.

It’ll be a week of rest and recuperation for the Coe Kohawks football team, not to mention a week of anxiousness.

Coe finished its regular season Saturday afternoon with a 47-10 win over Simpson at rainy Clark Field. Everyone else in the American Rivers Conference has one more game remaining next week, the Kohawks randomly receiving the unique Week 11 bye this season.

Wartburg clinched the conference championship with a win Saturday over Dubuque and the corresponding automatic NCAA Division III playoff berth. Coe (9-1) has a chance to get into the playoffs as an at-large qualifier, with the official pairings revealed a week from Sunday.

The D-III postseason field has been expanded to 40 teams, so that’s good for the Kohawks. Still there are no guarantees.

Coe’s lone loss this season was to Wartburg, 14-7, last month.

“Yes, we should be in,” said Coe linebacker Sam Shaw. “Wartburg’s had a lot of success in the playoffs the last two years, and they’re a good team. We’ve played them so close the last two years, feel like we were just a play or two away from beating them. We have a defense with a lot of experience, and I think like we have a team that could compete similar to Wartburg in the playoffs.”

This was Coe’s last chance to impress the people who needed to be impressed (the selection committee), and you’d have to say that task was accomplished. The Kohawks had three touchdowns each in the second and third quarters, scoring in about every way possible: via the pass, the run, on an interception return (Henry Ryan) and on a return of a dropped punt snap (Jack Clarahan).

Trenton Barnes, the ARC’s leading rusher, picked up a pair of short TD runs. Jeron Senters and Devon Kollasch each had touchdown receptions, Kollasch’s a 90-yarder on a middle wide receiver screen.

Quarterback Brady Kelly’s first collegiate start was a winner. The sophomore from Florida stepped in for normal starter Clay Krousie, completing 7 of 12 passes for 202 yards.

Kollasch, from Dike-New Hartford, had five catches for 167 yards.

“We knew we had to come in and handle business,” Kelly said. “I knew being the backup that people were relying on me for this game. I had to step up. We got the win, feel good. That’s all you can ask for.”

Kelly admitted he didn’t know how the Division III playoffs even work, so he couldn’t give an opinion on whether he thought Coe would get in. Head coach Tyler Staker feels his team is deserving.

The Kohawks will take Sunday off, then gather to practice this week. Heal up and hope for the best.

“The tough part with that is there is another week of football to be played. I don’t even know what happened today,” Staker said. “We’ll see. I feel like we’ve got a pretty good shot, especially with an expanded field.

“I definitely feel like we are deserving to go play in the postseason. We’re a team that can make a lot of noise in the postseason. We have a lot seniors and fifth years on this team that played in the playoffs last year. So I feel like we’re ready if our name is called. Our guys will be ready to go.”

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