Cougars use ground game to down Sundevils

Before Friday, Coronado football coach Brad Talich was beginning to get concerned about his team’s limited ability to move the ball on the ground.

Those concerns were quickly erased, as the Cougars racked up 329 rushing yards to roll past visiting Eldorado, 40-6.

Nick Trejo scored on his team’s first offensive play and finished with 61 yards on seven carries to help Coronado get off to the quick start his coach wanted.

“We wanted to run the ball and control the clock tonight,” Talich said. “Our concentration was definitely on running the football.”

The Cougars, who outgained the Sundevils 447 yards to 197, followed Trejo’s 8-yard TD with a 4-yard scoring run by Jordan Patterson to go ahead 13-0 late in the first quarter.

The Sundevils momentarily slowed Coronado’s momentum with an 89-yard pass from Joshua Brown to Shane Barnes to make it 13-6.

But Coronado’s Spencer Cofer quickly responded with a 51-yard TD pass to Travis Boman to make it 20-6 at halftime.

A failed fourth-down conversion attempt by the Sundevils early in the second half led to a 35-yard Daqu’an Davis TD, and Brian Johnson and Trejo added fourth-quarter scores to put it away for the Cougars.

Talich credited his defense, which gave up just 55 second-half yards, for making the touchdowns possible.

“We knew (the Sundevils) were explosive,” he said. “But we’ve played good defense all year. We knew our kids would perform.”

Davis finished with 107 yards on four carries for the Cougars (4-3, 1-1 Southeast), and Boman had five recpetions for 93 yards.

Brown was 7 of 14 for 137 yards to lead Eldorado (3-4, 0-3), which got 102 yards on three receptions from Barnes.