An improved effort with a good little bounce helped Anoka beat Coon Rapids

by Tom Yelle
SportsPrepZone

The improvement from Week 1 to Week 2 was dramatic and the main reason Anoka was able to defeat Coon Rapids 21-10 in its Goodrich Field home opener Friday night.

The week before Anoka did not play very strong fundamental football in its loss to Centennial. According to head coach Jeff Buerkle, the players did not wrap up and tackle well, took poor angles of pursuit, made wrong reads and just generally were not sharp.

But, there was a little more to this second-week game than just improving on that laundry list of first-week deficiencies.

Indeed. Good fortune played a role, too, notably a tone-setting opening kickoff that was popped into the air and came to earth between the 20 and 25 yard lines in the midst of three Coon Rapids players, who misjudged the missed kick. Anoka subsequently recovered the loose football at the 22 and on the first play from scrimmage Matt Pint took the handoff and rolled through the left side to the end zone.

Shortly thereafter -- following a punt return by Pat Cotter to Coon Rapids ' 47-yard line -- Anoka was in business again. Just before the seventh minute of the first quarter ticked off the scoreboard clock, Anoka was in the end zone a second time. This time it was Cotter traversing the final 13 yards through Coon Rapids ' defense on the right side for the touchdown.

"I wish I could say we practice that [opening] kind of a play, that kind of a kick all week," said Buerkle, "but we can't taken credit for that one. It just happened; it was a bad kick and we got lucky."

What Anoka did not get lucky executing early, though, was its focused pursuit on defense, its blocking on offense and ability to make plays. Anoka was so effective in each of these fundamental football departments, that Buerkle praised his athletes after the game, saying they had made "giant strides in just one week."

"We were horrible against Centennial, but in this game we were greatly improved," he emphatically stated. "That was fun to see tonight."

Anoka was so effective during the first quarter, in fact, that it nearly had a three-touchdown lead. But it was not perfect. What would have been a 54-yard halfback option pass by Cotter to the lanky Spencer Specht up the right side for a touchdown,  was wiped out because of a holding penalty. Ultimately, Coon Rapids took over after a punt and moved back up the field to score a touchdown early in the second quarter on an 11-yard Adam Hopps-to-Billy Harper pass over the middle.

Suddenly what had been a one-sided game was 14-7 and quite intriguing.

It became even more interesting when Coon Rapids ' young defensive unit stopped Anoka deep in its territory and forced a punt that put it at midfield. Coon Rapids moved to the 41, but that was it and eventually the ball was punted back to Anoka which started at the 17-yard line.

Anoka did not dwell on its poor field position too long, however. On first down Pint broke through the middle on a counter play and raced all the way to Coon Rapids ' 31-yard line -- 52 yards. From the 31, Anoka moved to the 11 thanks to a 15-yard personal foul penalty charged to Coon Rapids and from the 11-, then to the 6-yard line. With Anoka clicking on all fundamental cylinders, it was just a matter of time before before it found the end zone. And for the second time and final time for his team in this game it was Cotter.

The touchdown gave Anoka a 21-7 lead with less than two minutes remaining in the first half. Coon Rapids pared the deficit back to 21-10 when Josh Hrab booted a 29-yard field goal. Hrab had two chances to bring his team closer during the final four minutes of the game, but both 32- and 28-yard attempts were no good. Anoka also had a chance to score in the second half when it drove inside Coon Rapids ' 10-yard line only to lose the ball via a fumble at the 7-yard line.

"We played well; we played much, much better this week," said Buerkle in summary. "But we made it interesting, too. It definitely kept the fans in their seats..."