Coahoma JV struggles with field position, loses district opener to Idalou 34-8
Coahoma’s JV took the field on Thursday night for a home matchup against the visiting Idalou Wildcats in their first district game of the season. The Bulldogs would fall by a final score of 34-8 as they struggled with penalties throughout the game and the strong front seven of Idalou was consistently finding their way into the backfield.
The Wildcats also won the field position battle and started their drives inside Coahoma territory on multiple occasions. The Bulldogs will need to rebound when they hit the field next week on their trip to challenge the Stanton Buffaloes.
GAME RECAP
Coahoma received the opening kickoff and put together an extensive drive where they ran 14 plays. The drive included a share of running back duties between James Bandy and Isaiah Eleda while quarterback Grant Glidewell completed a few passes to Eleda, Braiden Boaz and Austin Perkins on the drive. However, the Bulldogs did not get too deep into Idalou territory and were forced to punt it away where it was downed at the Wildcats’ 23-yard line.
After taking up most of the first quarter with their opening offensive drive, Coahoma’s defense took the field and put together a couple of strong plays in-a-row that forced Idalou to punt it away.
Coahoma’s next drive involved two straight sacks before their punt was blocked by Idalou defensive lineman Landry Bozeman. That allowed the Wildcats’ offense to take over at the Bulldogs’ 28-yard line.
It took just over one minute and three total plays for Idalou to find the end zone for the first time following the blocked punt. Dru Harrington jumpstarted the Idalou offense with a 24-yard run that got his team all the way down inside the 5-yard line. After one more short rush by Tyler Jack, Harrington dove into the end zone on a 1-yard scoring run that gave his team their first lead. The extra point was good and the Wildcats led 7-0 with 4:34 remaining in the first half.
On the next Coahoma drive, the Bulldogs were stringing together nice run after nice run but ended up facing a 4th-and-4 near midfield. Glidewell dropped back to pass and was intercepted by Harrington, who went on to return the ball to the Coahoma 6-yard line.
Facing a 3rd-and-Goal from the 15yard line following a holding call, Idalou quarterback Cooper Ross delivered a perfectly-placed ball to the left corner of the end zone that was caught by Brycen Ladd for another wuick Wildcat touchdown. This time, the extra point was no good and Idalou held a 13-0 lead heading into halftime.
Idalou could not have planned a better start to the second half when kick returner Jeter Garcia took opening kickoff of the second half 70 yards and into the end zone. The Wildcats ran a fake field goal for the extra point and converted to make the score 21-0 early in the third quarter.
Coahoma was trying to get their running game going but were struggling to find open holes for their playmakers to hit. The next Bulldogs’ drive ended with a turnover on downs after Glidewell was tackled nine yards behind the line of scrimmage on a fourth down conversion attempt.
Idalou running back Malakhi Brisco started off the next drive with a 25yard run that put his time in the red zone. A few plays later, when facing a 4th-and-7, Harrington passed to the right corner of the end zone where Garcia made a leaping grab over the Coahoma defender for another Idalou touchdown. The extra point attempt was good and the Wildcats held a 28-0 lead with 3:44 remaining in the third quarter.
Coahoma’s offense once again could not get anything going and were forced to punt from their own 36-yard line.
Idalou took over at their own 32yard line and put together another strong drive. Coahoma nose tackle Shane White had himself a strong second half stuffing the inside runs but the rest of the defense had trouble with Idalou’s big running backs. After a long drive that ate up more than eight minutes on the game clock, Idalou running back Braxton Stephens ran 10 yards into the end zone for the last Idalou touchdown of the night. The extra point attempt was no good and the Wildcats had a 34-0 lead with just under three minutes remaining.
That is when Coahoma put together their only scoring drive of the game. After three straight rushes by Bandy, the Bulldogs handed it off to Eleda. He took the ball 28 yards and ended up inside the red zone and just outside of the Idalou 10-yard line. After three more runs by Bandy, Coahoma was facing a 4th-and-10 from the 11yard line. That is when Glidewell found Boaz open for a Bulldog touchdown. The two-point conversion was successful on a pass from Glidewell to Perkins and the Idalou lead had been trimmed to 34-8 with just seven seconds remaining in the game.
Idalou took a kneel on their final play and it was official that Coahoma had dropped their first JV district game of the season.
UP NEXT: The Bulldogs will travel to Stanton to take on the Buffaloes next Thursday night at 6:00.