Coahoma Bulldogs play hard, but fall to Merkel
MERKEL - The name of the game was field position and the Merkel Badgers played it well. The net result was a 37-20 win for the Badgers over the Coahoma Bulldogs. The win pushes Merkel to a 3-2 record while Coahoma falls to 2-3.
The Badgers prevailed by taking advantage of short scoring drives. Meanwhile the Bulldogs had to score from 75, 80 and 89 yards. On the other hand Merkel only had to drive 44 and 38 yards for its first two touchdowns of the game. The third Merkel touchdown drive of the first half went 56 yards as Merkel led 21-14 at the half.
In a sense the Bulldogs controlled everything in the first half but the score. Coahoma ran 39 plays to 23 for Merkel. The two Coahoma scoring drives ate up the clock with a two-headed monster of a running game paced by Brysen Kerby and Isaiah Eleda. Coahoma gobbled up 10 minutes of clock on its two scoring drives.
Coahoma's first scoring drive ended up with a 30 yards scoring pass from Billy Bailey to Austin Perkins, who had gotten behind the Merkel cornerback. It was Perkins' third touchdown catch of the season. Perkins also had an interception in the contest.
Coahoma took a 14-7 lead in the second quarter following a Merkel turnover. Freshman linebacker Jaidyn Vineyard laid a hard hit on a Merkel receiver and defensive back Billy Star recovered at the Coahoma 20.
Coahoma marched for the go ahead touchdown, mainly behind the legs of Kerby and Eleda. Bailey's 28-yards pass to Arian Emerson was the big play in the drive, which resulted in a oneyard Eleda scoring run.
Two of Merkel's short scoring drives came thanks to good kickoff returns On the opening kickoff Ryan Link returned the ball to the Coahoma 44 yard line. The next Merkel kickoff return was taken to the Coahoma 38 by Dayton Huggins.
Merkel's third score of the first half came when the Bulldogs faced a fourth and four from their own 44-yard line. Ky Kemper was stopped a yard short and Merkel went on to score the go ahead touchdown on a one-yard run by quarterback Joey Zink.
Zink was instrumental in the Badgers win, hooking up with his 6-foot-5 receiver Maddox O'. Malley for some big plays. A couple of time the smaller Coahoma defenders could not jump with the tall wide out.
In the second half Zink, who led all rushers with 98 yards on 16 carries and he also passed for 143 yards, took over along with a Merkel defense which put the reins on the Coahoma offense, limiting the Bulldogs to 117 yards offense in the second half.
Merkel played ball control and used the legs of punter Chris Delgado who averaged over 40 yards per punt. In the third quarter he unloaded a beautiful 49-yard punt that Merkel downed at the Coahoma one.
The next play Kerby was tackled in the end zone for a safety. Merkel got the ball right back and drove 50 yards in six plays to ice the game at 30-14.
Coahoma got a mop up touchdown when Bailey
Courtesy Photo
threw a 23-yard scoring pass to Kemper with 1:16 left in the contest.
Coahoma coach Chris Joslin said there is work to be done by his team and still remains optimistic. "We've to to play four quarters of a football game," Joslin said. "We've got to keep our edge. We've got to get some stuff fixed. We've got to do a better job of coaching and a better job of playing. The good things is we're 0-0 going into district. We've got a week off and we're going to work."
Coahoma starts district play Oct. 8 in Coahoma when it hosts highly regarded Idalou at 7:30 p.m. Coahoma Merkel
18 16 46-209 16-226
125 143 9-18-2 9-14-1
3-2 3-2 3-12 7-58 0-0 3-41
Score by quarters
First downs Rushing Passing C-A-I Fum/lost Pen/yds Punt/ave
Coahoma - 07-07-00-06 - 20 Merkel - 07-14-16-0 - 37
Scoring Summary
1st
M - Joey Zink, 8 -yd run, Elijah Salas kick, 9:46. C_ Billy Bailey, 30 yd pass to Austin Perkins, Reagan Chapman kick, 3:59.
2nd
C _ Isaiah Eleda, 1-yd run, Chapman kick 10:00. M - Salas 17-yd run, two good, pass Zink to Isiah Burns, 8:18.
M - Zink 1-yd. run, kick fail, :40.
3rd
M- Zink 28-yd. run, Salas kick, 10:09.
M- Safety , team tackle Brysen Kerby in end zone, 5:26.
M- Zink 1 yd run, Salas kick, 1:51.
4th
C- Bailey 23-yd pass to Ky Kemper, try for two fail, 1:16.
Individual
Coahoma - Rushing Kerby 24-93, Kemper 4-57; Eleda 13-82; Redden 1-0, Bailey 4-minus 9; Passing - Bailey 9-16-2 int, 2 TD; Kemper 0-2-0; Receiving Kemper 4-41, Perkins 2-37, Arian Emerson 2-40, Billy Starr 1-3.
Merkel - Rushing - Zink 16-98. Burns 5-21, Dayton Huggins 2-33, Salas 2-74; Passing Zink 9-14-1 int., Receiving - Maddox O' Malley 3-84. Aiden Jackson 2-28, Elijah Olivarez 1-5, Burns 1-2, Huggins 1-3.