Turns out, those two plays simply masked the struggles that were to come for the Mustangs along the offensive and defensive lines.
Midland’s running game gashed the Mustangs while the Bulldogs’ defense shook off the big plays to thwart the Coronado offense at every turn, leading to a 48-13 victory Friday night at PlainsCapital Park-Lowrey Field.
Elijah McCoy rushed for 177 yards and three touchdowns on 23 carries, and the Bulldogs (2-0) amassed 440 total yards offensively, all on the ground.
“They started making plays, and our offensive line started struggling a little bit, we were just off tonight,” said senior receiver Surreal Garrett, whose 41-yard touchdown catch with just over a minute left in the first quarter gave Coronado (0-2) its last lead of the game at 13-7. “We game-planned for that exact defense all week and we should have executed it. We’ve just got to come back next week stronger, lock in.”
The game was the exact opposite of last week’s loss to Frenship where the Mustangs started slowly but picked up their rhythm in the second half. Against Midland, however, the strong start could not be sustained.
Midland took the lead for good midway through the second quarter when McCoy broke off around left end for a 48-yard touchdown, and the Bulldogs never looked back. Midland took complete control late in the second quarter on a short touchdown run by Anthony Kolb – the first of two for him on the night – then the Bulldogs turned an interception of Isaiah Vazquez into a 62-yard touchdown run on a keeper by quarterback Tristan Love with 31 seconds left, putting Midland up 29-13 at halftime.
The Bulldogs’ running game was just unstoppable from the first quarter on. Love finished with 98 rushing yards on six carries, Tim Babino added 68 yards on eight carries and Kolb toted it eight times for 48 yards.
“We came out smoking hot and just weren’t able to make the key adjustments we needed to make to keep it going,” Coronado head coach D.J. Mann said. “Tip my hat to Midland High, they came out and ran that option to perfection. It always starts up front and we’ve got to coach them up better. It’s on us to do a better job of getting those kids going.”
While Midland was running the ball seemingly at will sometimes, Coronado struggled to find any consistency running or throwing. Vazquez did throw for 119 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 69 yards and a score. But he completed just 7 of 21 pass attempts, and he was held to minus-3 yards rushing after scoring on a 72-yard keeper on Coronado’s first drive of the game.
The Mustangs were held to just 237 yards total offense, and only 26 yards and one offensive first down in the second half. Midland did a good job of bottling up Coronado running back Demarion Finch, who had just 10 rushing yards on 10 carries.
“It’s definitely trying to get these young guys going in the same direction,” Mann said of what’s not clicking for the team at this point. “We need to get these young guys to be able to play a full four-quarter game. I think we’re up and down and we need to figure out how to stay even keeled. It’s a long season and we’re playing these tough teams for a reason, and once we do that we’ll be just fine.”
MIDLAND 48, CORONADO 13
Midland 7 22 13 6 -- 48
Coronado 13 0 0 0 -- 13
First Quarter
COR – Isaiah Vazquez 72 run (kick failed); 10:41
MID – Elijah McCoy 2 run (Levi Crowder kick); 4:28
COR – Surreal Garrett 41 pass from Vazquez (Christian Sanchez kick); 1:08
Second Quarter
MID – McCoy 48 run (Crowder kick); 5:46
MID – Anthony Kolb 2 run (Crowder kick); 2:31
MID – Triston Love 62 run (Kolb run); :31
Third Quarter
MID – FG Crowder 43; 6:41
MID – McCoy 12 run (Crowder kick); 3:45
MID – FG Crowder 42; 1:15
Fourth Quarter
MID – Kolb 23 run (kick failed); 5:31
MID COR
First downs 21 12
Rushes-yards 50-440 23-100
Passing yards 0 137
Comp.-att.-int 0-4-0 11-27-1
Punts-avg. 1-40.0 5-27.0
Fumbles-lost 2-0 0-0
Penalties-yards 9-68 5-35
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING
Midland, Elijah McCoy 23-177, Tristan Love 6-98, Tim Babino 8-68, Anthony Kolb 8-48, Cornell Hunt 1-42, Jesus Jaquez 3-9, Sebastian Amesquita 1... Click here to read full article
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