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[ PREVIOUS STORIES ]

09-06-03: Cavaliers looking better on offense

By GARY R. RASBERRY
grasberry@dailystandard.com

NEW BREMEN — It wasn’t the strongest outing that his team could have had, but John Reed could smile a little wider on Friday night.
After scoring just 26 points in the first two games of the season, Coldwater got the offense rolling against New Bremen, posting a 34-13 win over the Cardinals at Cardinal Field in Midwest Athletic Conference action.
The win puts the Cavaliers at 3-0 and 2-0 in the MAC. The Cardinals suffer their first MAC loss in the league opener and drop to 1-2 overall.
The Cavaliers piled up over 300 yards of offense against New Bremen, using a strong running game to compliment a passing game that showed great improvement after a rough first two weeks.
“We were improved tonight, no question,” said Reed. “New Bremen did a good job defensively against us and frustrated us in a lot of ways. That’s the best we’ve played offensively but we obviously have to get a lot better than that if we’re going to go down the road at all.”
Early on the Cardinal defense was able to chase Cav quarterback Alex Hoyng out of the box, scoring a couple of early sacks and forcing some rushed throws. Reed backed off the passing and went to the running game, which paid immediate dividends.
With 2:02 left in the first quarter, Coldwater regained possession off the punt at New Bremen’s 38. Josh Fullenkamp took the handoff and scampered home for the long touchdown run to start the scoring.
It looked like the Cardinals would answer with a four-minute drive that went for 77 yards down to the Cavalier eight-yard line before stalling. Quarterback Alex Leugers was forced from the pocket and hit hard, fumbling the ball to give Coldwater possession back.
After a trading of punts, Coldwater put together a sustained drive that featured just one pass. Still lined out of the shotgun, Hoyng handed off to either Fullenkamp or Ross Homan. Homan got the last six calls in the huddle, picking up 36 yards and scoring from a yard out to push the lead to 14-0 with 1:53 to go in the second quarter.
Another fumble gave Coldwater a chance to put the game away early. With the Cardinals looking for Homan or Fullenkamp, Hoyng went airborne, completing 3-of-5 passes in the series, the last going to Craig Wellman for the 10-yard touchdown score to make it 21-0. Hoyng finished 11-for-18 for 138 yards.
“Our depth isn’t the way we would really like to have it,” said New Bremen coach Howard Overman. “We’re kind of green with some kids going both ways. ... I don’t know if it was anything they did, not taking anything away from Coldwater, we played a little tired.”
The Coldwater defense, shining in the two big wins to start the season, did not lose its luster on Friday, kept the Cardinal offense scoreless and forced three fumbles, recovering two.
“A lot of credit goes to New Bremen. They had a good plan,” said Reed. “A lot of things they did exploited some of the things we have been good at. You’ve got to give credit to them.”
“You’ve got to give credit to Coldwater. That may be the best defense I hopefully see this year,” said Overman. “They’re pretty fast. When we thought we had something, it was closed down. ... They react before it gets there. Offensively we did some good things, but we just didn’t get the consistency and again, I think you have to give that credit to Coldwater.”
New Bremen finally got on the board in the final quarter. The first score came after Coldwater scored on a Kyle Schoenherr 76-yard punt return. On the ensuing kickoff, Kyle Jutte scatted his way across the field for an 85-yard return with nine minutes left.
The final score came on the Cardinals final drive when backup quarterback Allan Webster drove the reserves 78 yards, getting the final 14 on a touchdown pass to Scott Brackman.
Fullenkamp finished with 130 yards rushing and two scores for Coldwater while Homan added 41 yards rushing. Jeff Thobe led New Bremen with 61 yards rushing and Scott Steineman made three catches for 52 yards, all coming on the final drive for New Bremen.
Coldwater heads to Indiana on Friday to face Fort Wayne Elmhurst while New Bremen travels to St. Henry to face the Redskins.

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