No. 20 Bluejays pass Coyote test years ago
By RYAN RICHTER
Sports writer
Offense wins games, defense wins championships.
Not quite yet, but it was enough for the Bluejays (4-0, 3-0 KCAC) to top a high-powered Kansas Wesleyan Coyote team on its home turf Saturday night in Salina, 21-6.
While many, including Tabor coach Mike Gardner, were thinking the Coyotes would shred the Bluejay secondary with their passing game, Tabor had other ideas.
Nothing worked for KWU with the Tabor defense, led by Jake Schenk, holding the Coyotes to 110 yards on the ground and 132 through the air.
"We came out the other night and made plays when we had to make them," said Gardner. "They (KWU) came in thinking they were going to be able to throw the ball a little bit and to be honest, I did, too, but our secondary played well."
One of Gardner's biggest beefs has been with the offense finishing plays, and not much worked for Tabor in Saturday's first quarter.
The Bluejays surrendered two field goals to fall behind 6-0 with 6:28 to go in the first frame.
Besides giving up the two field goals, the Bluejay defense allowed little else, holding the Coyotes to an abysmal 1-for-17 on third down conversions.
That meant keeping KWU's offense on the sidelines by controlling the clock. Tabor did that, controlling the ball 38:46 while the Coyotes had it just 24:51.
Tabor had problems hanging on to the ball, losing three fumbles to KWU with two wiping out good chances for scoring opportunities.
Penalties played a factor, too.
Tabor finally broke the goose egg 4:52 into the second quarter with quarterback Ricky Ishida slipping in from a yard out.
Ishida added 14 yards rushing to his 294 yards passing, accounting for three touchdowns for the night.
Roger Butler triggered the attack on the ground, carrying the ball 17 times for a game-high 73 yards with Ted Telemaque adding 63 yards, part of the 135-yard attack.
Brian Kimsey broke the tie with the PAT, fueling the 21 pivotal unanswered points by the Bluejays.
Striving to get everybody involved in the offense, Ishida hooked up with John Garcia for a 16-yard score with 3:19 left in the first half to give Tabor a 14-6 cushion by halftime.
Instead of the Coyotes picking apart the Bluejay secondary, it was vice versa, with Layne Frick having a career day.
His hookup with Ishida for a 50-yard touchdown capped off an eight play, 91-yard drive that finished KWU off for good.
Frick had eight catches for a game career-high 141 yards.
"Layne played real well and had a really nice catch and broke a tackle," said Gardner. "Ricky Ishida. You can't say enough about him, he was putting the ball on people and John Garcia got in the end zone.
"I felt like it was really positive as a performance and we came together as a team and that's really nice to see."
The Bluejays face stiff competition Saturday for the homecoming game against the Friends Falcons and dangerous back Aron Howell.
The jitterbug Howell leads the KCAC in rushing and is coming off a huge game in a win over Southwestern.
Game time is scheduled for 2 p.m. at Reimer Field.
