Turnovers costly as Coyotes lose to Ottawa 14-7
By: David Toelle, KWU Sports Information

The Coyote defense celebrates a turnover in the first quarter of Wesleyan's 14-7 loss to Ottawa

It was a great game, but turnovers proved to be costly as Ottawa University spoiled Kansas Wesleyan’s homecoming with a 14-7 win over the Coyotes on Saturday at Salina Stadium.

Wesleyan turned the ball over four times, including twice on plays inside Ottawa’s five yard line. Outside of the four miscues, the Coyotes dominated the game, winning nearly every statistical category on the final stat sheet.

Ottawa nearly took an early lead on its second possession of the game, when it appeared that quarterback Ethan Haller hooked up with Chris Simms on a scoring play from Wesleyan’s 20. But, the Coyote defense which has bent but never broken several times this season came through as Michael Vaughan knocked the ball away and recovered at the KWU-3.

Wesleyan has a great opportunity to score on its third drive of the game, as the Coyotes marched 79-yards on 10 plays to the Ottawa 1-yard line. The Coyotes had second and goal from there, but a botched snap on a quarterback sneak play was recovered by Ottawa’s Art Rubio at the Brave 1-yard line.

After Ottawa’s drive stalled, Wesleyan took over at its own 46, but gave the ball back to the Braves for the second straight possession via a turnover when Dallas’ pass to Marcus Lowe was picked off by Ty’Rone Jenkins at the Ottawa 13, just one play after the Coyotes capitalized on a Ottawa penalty on a fourth and one play.

After another stalled Ottawa drive the Coyotes put together another time consuming drive, working their way down to the Ottawa-19, but could not convert a fourth and three play when Dallas’ pass to Jason Dolan was incomplete.

Neither team could score in the first half, taking a 0-0 score into the break.

The Coyotes (3-2, 2-2 KCAC) took the ball to open the second half and found paydirt 10 plays and 60 yards later when Dallas faked a handoff to Preston McCorkle and went untouched into the endzone from three yards out. Scotty McKeon’s kick made it 7-0 with 10:24 left in the third. All ten plays of the drive were running plays.

With a ground game that just couldn’t get going, Ottawa turned to the air to get yards and produced the Braves’ first score of the game when Haller hit Simms on a 40-yard catch and run, and Casey Wieder’s kick tied things up at 7-7 with 7:24 left in the third. The drive only took six plays and covered 80-yards.

The Coyotes took over at midfield after a 20-yard kick return from Dane McCoy on the short kickoff, and got as close as the Ottawa-33 when the turnover bug struck again. Overlooking a wide open receiver in the flat, Dallas looked for Dolan on the long ball, but the ball hung up and Earl Moorning picked off the pass at the Brave 1-yard line.

After the teams traded drives back and forth, Wesleyan gave the Braves the ball in great shape after a seven-yard punt from McKeon gave Ottawa the ball at the KWU-42. The Braves then needed just two plays, a 41-yard catch and run from Haller to Taylor Burnett, and a one-yard run by Haller to take a 14-7 lead with 9:20 left in the game.

After Ottawa’s next to last drive stalled at the KWU-35 and Cebold’s punt bounced into the end zone for a touchback, the Coyotes made one last charge to try to tie the game. Wesleyan turned to Dallas and the Coyote receivers to move the ball down the field. Dallas completed his first five passes of the drive, and the Coyotes scattered in three McCorkle runs and were aided by a personal foul penalty on the Braves to have first down at the OU-14. From there, the Coyotes went for the end zone four straight times, but Dallas’ passes were all incomplete giving Ottawa the ball back on downs with 30 seconds left.

McCorkle led the Coyotes with 132 yards rushing on 32 carries, while Jeremy Washington added 12 carries for 45 yards and Dallas carried seven times for 22 yards and a score. Dallas was 12-for-25 passing from 123 yards, but threw three interceptions. Marcus Lowe had five catches for 40 yards, while Dolan added three grabs for 63 yards.

Robbie DuBois led the Braves with 18 carries for 73 yards, but the Braves only had 61 yards rushing as Haller had -12 yards rushing on six carries. Throwing the ball, Haller was 13-for-22 for 233 yards including one score and one interception. Burnett led the Ottawa receivers with seven catches for 154 yards.

The Coyotes face another tough opponent next week at home as No.7 ranked Friends comes to Salina Stadium for a 3 p.m. kickoff.

-- KWU SI --