St. John’s has earned the #1 seed in the West Region, but unlike the tournament’s other top seeds, their lofty perch doesn’t offer them a smooth path deep into the playoffs. In fact, the West Region is loaded with perennial football powers. The Central Dutch won their 30th IIAC title en route to their 20th NCAA tournament appearance and haven’t had a losing season since 1960. Not to be outdone, the Linfield Wildcats just recorded their 54th consecutive winning season and are only 5 years removed from winning the Stagg Bowl. Even the team they beat for the 2004 national championship, the Mary Hardin-Baylor Crusaders, has improbably been imported into the West Region.
Against such prestigious programs, it’s easy to overlook the #25 Coe Kohawks. While the Kohawks don’t have the historic success of some of the other top teams in the West, they make their fourth trip to Collegeville once again boasting an offensive star that would be the envy of any team in the tournament.
The Johnnies’ and Kohawks’ first meeting was a 1991 playoff matchup that was all Johnnies. Led by freshman running back Carey Bender, the Kohawks fell to the Johnnies by a 75-2 score. Two years later, Coe again headed north for a playoff appearance in Collegeville, and Bender led them to a much more respectable 35-14 defeat. A season later, Bender would be named the 1994 Gagliardi Trophy winner as the best D3 player in the nation. He still holds school career records in nearly every rushing category, as well as the NCAA record for yards-per-carry in a season. Still, two-time All-American Bender’s individual excellence wasn’t enough to top the Johnnies in two tries.
The next time Kohawks came to town, they were led by another All-American running back, senior running back Fred Jackson. NFL fans, especially fantasy football enthusiasts, certainly recognize the name—Jackson is currently starring as the starting running back for the Buffalo Bills. While Jackson would find the end zone twice against the Johnnies, it wouldn’t be enough as St. John’s pulled away for a 45-14 win.
As Coe takes their fourth shot at knocking off the Johnnies in the playoffs, they’ll once again have a record setting offensive star. Sophomore quarterback Brad Boyle set a D3 record for consecutive passes without an interception and set the Coe single-season record for total yardage in last week’s 56-7 win over Cornell. Though he finally threw his first interception on the season against Cornell, he sports an impressive 17-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio. Boyle is also the Kohawks’ 2nd leading rusher and his 14 rushing touchdowns and 280.7 total yards per game lead the IIAC.
While Coe’s offense may lack explosiveness (they ranked 4th in the IIAC in yards per game), they do a great job of holding on to the football. In addition to Boyle’s lone interception on the season, the Kohawks have only lost 4 fumbles. At the same time, they’ve forced 11 interceptions and recovered 11 fumbles on the season, and their +17 turnover margin easily paces the IIAC. It will be interesting to see who wins the ever-important turnover battle on Saturday—the Johnnies’ +13 margin leads the MIAC.
In addition to forcing turnovers, the Kohawk defense also excels in getting after the quarterback. Led by freshman defensive end Frank Weymiller’s conference-leading total of 11, the Kohawks top the IIAC with 34 sacks. Junior defensive end Nate Clear has tallied 7 sacks and sophomore defensive tackle Tyler Hemry has chipped in 5.5. Senior middle linebacker Tate Harrison paces the team with 92 tackles, including 7.5 tackles for a loss.
The Kohawks lead the IIAC in total defense, allowing an average of 300.2 yards and 14.2 points per game. They will likely try to keep St. John’s quarterback Joe Boyle, starting for the first time in four weeks, from settling into an offensive rhythm. While the Johnnies are running more—and more effectively—than they have in recent memory, you can be sure that they would like to get their fallen passing attack back on track this week.
Luckily for St. John’s, they seem to be getting healthy at the right time of the season. Joe Boyle injured the thumb on his passing early in the 6th game of the season and did not start either of the last two games, but is practicing and fully expects to start on Saturday. He likely won’t be joined by the Johnnies leading rusher, Jakob Reding, who is expected to miss at least one more game with a sprained knee.
On the defensive side of the ball, All-American tackle Nick Gunderson made his first start since tearing his ACL in Week 4 last week against Carleton. He’s expected to be joined in the starting lineup by All-MIAC linebacker Ryan Wimmer, who missed last week’s game dealing with a concussion suffered the week prior against Augsburg. Billy Lawrence started in Wimmer’s place last game and starred, intercepting two passes, having a third interception (which he returned for a touchdown) called back on a penalty, and breaking up numerous other passes. He’s been hobbled by a sprained ankle but expects to see some action on Saturday.
The Kohawks should present a bigger challenge for the Johnnies than they have in the past—any St. John’s fans expecting a 75-2 win on Saturday are very likely to go home disappointed. Still, Coe fell rather harmlessly to Central in their only loss on the year, 24-6, and a similar margin of victory for the Johnnies this week isn’t out of the question. While St. John’s won’t get the type of first round cupcake often enjoyed by top teams in the NCAA tournament, they should get a chance to work on getting their offense up to speed while nursing a second half lead this weekend. Which is good, because in a region as tough as this one, the Johnnies are going to need all the firepower they can get.
