Slow start plagues C-M football in loss to Wayne

COLFAX — The Colfax-Mingo football team can’t take away the first quarter it played against Wayne on Friday.

But the Tigerhawks will use the positives they saw from the final three frames of their 26-7 loss as reasons to feel optimistic moving forward in head coach Drake Buscherfeld’s first season.

Wayne scored the game’s first 26 points and led 20-0 after one quarter, but Colfax-Mingo outscored the Falcons through the final three periods and out-gained its visitors by 23 offensive yards.

“I thought our guys fought really hard. Maybe harder than they ever have,” Buscherfeld said. “We played much better in the second half. I’m not saying without the first quarter we win, but the box score says that.”

There were six scoring drives in the game between the two teams. But neither squad had one that went more than 53 yards. And Colfax-Mingo’s two longest drives covered 68 yards and 56 yards but both resulted in no points.

Wayne used a short field after a blocked punt on C-M’s opening drive of the game to score first. The Falcons drove 19 yards in three plays and Fischer Buckingham ran for 14 on the final play to make it 6-0.

Colfax-Mingo’s Shane Hostetter hooked up with newcomer Caden Sykes for 38 yards on the Tigerhawks’ next possession, but the drive stalled after a sack, penalty and tackle for loss.

Wayne then made it 14-0 when it drove 51 yards in four plays. Karter Murphy converted a third and 8 with a 24-yard run and then found Cole Gibson for a 25-yard touchdown.

After C-M’s third drive went for negative yards, Wayne went back to work with another short field. This time, the Falcons drove 32 yards in five plays. Murphy’s 18-yard TD run pushed the margin to 20-0.

“We started off really poor. We gave them a touchdown on the blocked punt,” Buscherfeld said. “Then the quarterback broke a tackle or two on a short field and we are down 14-0 like that. We just couldn’t come back from that. But I believe we won the second half.”

Colfax-Mingo’s longest drive came on its next possession. The Tigerhawks (0-1) used two Hostetter runs to secure their first first down of the night and back-to-back completions to Sykes moved the chains again.

C-M nearly lost possession on a fumble but got the ball back before Hostetter eventually completed another pass to Sykes for 28 yards.

In a goal-to-go situation, Hostetter ran the ball four straight times but couldn’t get in. The Tigerhawks had fourth and goal from the 1 but went backwards to end the possession.

“When you get on the inch line, you have to score there. We made too many mistakes penalty-wise, too,” Buscherfeld said. “We just have to start faster. I’m proud of our guys. I think a big issue during our scrimmage was not fighting back when adversity hit, but I think we battled back and got a lot better. We just have to execute better offensively.”

Wayne (1-0) led 20-0 at halftime and neither team scored in the third. The Tigerhawks forced a turnover on downs after Wayne drove 40 yards in 10 plays and then stopped the Falcons after 15 yards in three plays on their next drive.

Wayne scored on its third drive of the second half to go up 26-0. It drove 53 yards in eight plays and Gibson grabbed a 4-yard TD pass on fourth and goal.

The Tigerhawks flipped the field on their next drive but stayed off the scoreboard despite moving the ball 52 yards in 14 plays. The biggest gainers on the drive were a pair of screen passes to newcomer Wyatt Carpenter that resulted in 35 yards.

But after C-M’s final first down of the drive, there were three incomplete passes, a holding penalty and a sack.

The Tigerhawks were sacked five times in the loss and Wayne also registered 9.5 tackles for loss.

“They have two really good defensive tackles. We haven’t seen anything like that yet,” Buscherfeld said. “We are very young up front. I thought they battled well and figured it out at the end. I think we also have to stand in the pocket and trust it a little bit more. That’s on us coaches. Sometimes we tell them to bail and we shouldn’t. I’ll take the blame on that. I believe in the offensive line. We’ll get better.”

The Tigerhawk defense forced Wayne into a punt on its next-to-last possession and the short field resulted in points for the hosts.

After an incompletion on first down, Hostetter hooked up with Sykes for a seventh time and this one went for 24 yards. Hostetter scored from 1 yard out on the next play.

“I feel very good about how the defense played,” Buscherfeld said. “I will take some of the blame as far as just not being ready to play right away. Maybe we have to look at a different pre-game.

“Once the kids got going and played more, they realized they could play with this team. They realized their abilities matched up. I’m proud of how they fought and didn’t roll over. There’s a lot of positives to take into our next game.”

Football sometimes is a game of inches. The Tigerhawks just missed on a long touchdown pass from Hostetter to Xavier Woods in the first half and had a near interception on one of Wayne’s first three scoring drives.

Buscherfeld also felt like a touchdown on the long drive in the first half that resulted in no points would have changed the course of the game.

“We are going to see five or six plays where we missed a long touchdown by a few inches,” Buscherfeld said. “I see that as a positive. It means we are doing things right. We just have to execute and believe in ourselves.”

Colfax-Mingo had an 11-7 advantage in first downs and out-gained the Falcons 255-232.

Hofstetter finished 10-of-26 through the air for 167 yards. He also rushed for 63 yards and a touchdown.

Sykes grabbed seven passes for 127 yards and Carpenter gained 35 yards on his two passes. Woods booted a 35-yard extra point after C-M penalized following its TD.

Sykes led the defense with seven tackles and his lone punt went for 35 yards. Jace Lewis also had three tackles, one sack and two tackles for loss.

Brock Nichol tallied six tackles, Carpenter and Camden Cunningham each had five tackles, Hostetter chipped in four tackles and Jashawn Fleming produced three tackles.

Murphy threw for 95 yards and one score and rushed for 58 yards and another score to lead Wayne. Buckingham gained 63 yards and scored one TD on 17 carries and Gibson grabbed four passes for 73 yards and two TDs.

Buckingham led the Falcon defense with nine tackles, Murphy had seven tackles and Gibson secured five tackles, 1.5 sacks and 3.5 tackles for loss.