Last season, a young Coffeyville-Field Kindley squad finished 2-7, including an 0-5 start. The Golden Tornado fell by 32 to Columbus, 29 against Independence, and 45 to Mulvane. Of Coffeyville’s seven losses, six came with 30-plus margins.
This year, Coffeyville opened at home versus Mulvane, a 4A quarterfinalist in 2021 that graduated Mason Ellis, a two-way player and Shrine Bowler. The Wildcats returned several other key pieces. Coffeyville was aware of last fall’s lopsided result.
The Golden Tornado hadn’t shown their rushing offense live against another team. Coffeyville moved the ball, though made costly mistakes, including four turnovers and 17 penalties. Mulvane corralled the run game. Coffeyville finished with 214 total yards, all but six on the ground.
“Our kids kept fighting and battling,” Coffeyville coach Deonta Wade said. “Any time anything bad happened, whether it was a turnover, or a penalty call (after) a big play, we rebounded, and made plays, and kept making plays and kept making plays.”
Coffeyville eventually won the unusual game, 8-0, in overtime on a one-yard run from sophomore Aaron Tunstall. He led with 19 carries for 130 yards. Sophomore Jeremy Colbert, who was dismissed from the team last year, talked with Wade in the offseason and has made positive strides. He finished with 12 carries. Junior Kainen White and senior De’Andre Shobe tied for the team high with nine tackles apiece and combined for eight tackles for loss.
“Defense played their tails off,” Wade said. “That was the biggest thing for me to see, how we started the season, and then kind of carried over each week.”
In Week 2, Coffeyville had a back-and-forth game with Winfield. The ‘Nado trailed twice and delivered a 65-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter, the final points in a 32-27 victory. Tunstall, though, suffered a broken leg and is out for the year.
In Week 3, Coffeyville avenged last year’s loss to Columbus and controlled the Titans in a 32-20 victory. Coffeyville consistently ran at Columbus, a team known for physicality, and contained standout Titan quarterback Brett Hamilton. Last week, Coffeyville bumped to 4-0 with a 42-13 win against Independence.
Colbert has emerged as the feature back with 71 carries for 542 yards and seven scores. Coffeyville, one of Kansas’ biggest surprises, is 4-0 for the first time since 2013, when it lost to Buhler in the state title. Coffeyville had around 90 percent of its team returning from ’21, a squad that committed 26 turnovers. The ‘Nado have just three this fall.
“When we saw the way last year ended, and then the way they attacked the offseason … we knew we’d have a lot more success this year than we had the two prior years,” Wade said. “And then the key how they attack every day, how they attack practice every day, the mentality about things, it’s been pretty good.”
On Friday, Coffeyville is at Wamego (4-0), the lone two unbeaten teams in wide-open 4A West. Wamego has enjoyed success under coach Weston Moody, including a 9-2 mark and the program’s best scoring offense since at least the mid-80s last fall.
The Red Raiders have played the first month without senior quarterback Hayden Oviatt, a top-15 all-classes recruit and Army West Point commit. Oviatt has been out with a foot injury and is not expected to play. This is believed to be the first all-time matchup between the programs. The teams are separated by 194 miles; the squads have trouble scheduling regular season games since they are in leagues that have limited membership and include smaller classification schools.
“My thought was we will want to play people that we are going to see if you make a playoff run,” Wade said.
Wamego has won all four games by relatively large margins. Quarterback Colin Donahue has played well in Oviatt’s stead with 682 passing yards and 12 scores. Donahue, expected to go to West Point, too, will move back to receiver once Oviatt returns. In 2020, Donahue stepped in for Oviatt for a game. Oviatt was out with COVID quarantine.
“We are trying to make sure that he is 100 percent before he rolls out there, because we don’t want to put him out there, and risk more injury from him not being 100 percent,” Moody said of Oviatt. “The competitor that he is, it’s kind of hard to know if he is 100 percent or not, because he just wants to get out there and play. He doesn’t care. He would go out there with one leg if he could.”
Chase Cottam has 238 receiving yards, and Hagan Johnson 251 for the Red Raiders. They have combined for nine receiving TDs. Thomas McIntyre has paced a banged-up rushing corps with 232 yards. Porter Smith is out for the year after a Week 2 leg injury. McIntyre suffered a shoulder injury the first week and missed Week 2. Junior 215-pound tight end Mason King has delivered TDs in short yardage situations.
Defensively, Gannon Couture has 31 tackles, while senior Grant Larson has 27. Dawson Tajchman and Drew Pettay have each picked off two passes. Wamego two-platoons. The starting defensive line is Jake Meyer, Gage Woodward, Ariston Gamino and Wyatt Burgess.
Couture moved from Belleville-Republic County when his dad took a principal job before ’21. Larson has started since his sophomore year. Wamego’s offense has struggled moving the ball in practice against the defensive line.
“Our defensive line is basically the same guys,” Moody said. “And they don’t get very much press. … They have been stepping up and have been stepping up since sophomore, freshman year. The defensive front has really helped our backers and our safeties fly around and make plays.”
The starting offensive line is Andrew Hildebrand, Eli Bergmeier, Brayden Fulton, Cooper Dow and Cody Mayer. Wamego has went for first downs several times on fourth down knowing the defense could back up if the Red Raiders didn’t move the chains.
“The defense has really stepped up,” Moody said. “And that’s kind of helped us. Offensively, we have had more opportunities, and we have taken more risks, because we have known that our defense has kind of been shut down.”
Wade is originally from Missouri. He served as an assistant at Russell in 2016 and then later at Parsons for two years. In spring 2020, during COVID, Coffeyville called for an interview. This is Wade’s third season. He has multiple Coffeyville graduates on staff.
“Coaching here is awesome,” Wade said. “And that’s the thing about Coffeyville is everybody here they know, and they remember the success.”
Coffeyville significantly relies on a high number of sophomores. That class has consistently produced success in the younger ranks, through AAU travel basketball, baseball or track. They continued the success in middle school. The sophomore class includes Colbert.
“You have got to earn that trust, and he has done that this year,” Wade said. “He has grown up, he has matured a little bit, and he just came to me this offseason like ‘Coach, I am ready to do this.’ And we have known that he could be a player for us, but he had to grow up a little bit, and so he’s finally getting his chance to shine this year.”
Colbert had a slow start last Friday against Independence. He opened with five carries for negative-4 yards. Coffeyville put in sophomore Lamarcus Allen, who rushed for a touchdown. Colbert was the first one to congratulate Allen as he came off the field. Colbert eventually finished with 23 carries for 207 yards and four scores.
“Jeremy has definitely grown up immensely, and that was the first thing I told him Monday when I saw him,” Wade said. “Like, ‘Hey man, I am proud of you, because last year, it would have been a different story, so I can see that he is trying to be a better person, and that’s all it’s about.”
Coffeyville’s first win helped set the tone for the year. The ‘Nado fought through some challenging times and responded accordingly against Mulvane. By rule, overtime is a possession from the 10-yard line for each team. Coffeyville believed it would score. The nerve-wracking part came with stopping Mulvane. Coffeyville had a big sack to force third-and-long. On fourth down, Coffeyville contained the Wildcats’ mobile signal caller.
Coffeyville has three straight two-win seasons. The ‘Nado has not been over .500 since ’13, which is also the last time Coffeyville shut out an opponent. Wade said Field Kindley was proverbially “punched in the mouth a little bit” against Winfield and came back. Mike O’Connor, at Coffeyville for 10-plus years, coaches the offensive line after a long stint at defense. Juniors Kainen White (defensive line) and Brayson Voss (linebacker) have led the defense with 31 and 30 tackles, respectively.
“It was nice to see our guys battle adversity,” Wade said. “It was one of our bigger question marks going into this year was how are we going to handle things when they don’t go our way?”
Coffeyville wanted to provide its quarterback more time this year, and sophomore Axel Erne, a first-year starter, has managed well with six completions, two for scores and no turnovers. He threw a TD in Weeks 2 and 3. This fall, Coffeyville has ran more “12” personnel with one running back and two tight ends with Wing-T concepts.
“If we could cut down on our turnovers, we would probably have a lot more success,” Wade said. “And then we have done that. It might not look like much in the stat category, but Axel does a lot for us to put us in positions to be successful. Last year, a lot of times we were 2nd-and-20 a lot or 3rd-and-15 a lot. And we just haven’t seen much of that this year, and so he has just made smart plays. He’s a really good kid.”
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