No. 4 Coronado makes statement in rout of No. 3 Liberty — PHOTOS
Coronado’s football team appeared to give Henderson rival Liberty a gift in the second quarter with the Patriots’ offense struggling.
Liberty picked off Coronado senior quarterback Aiden Krause with the Cougars driving to take a two-score lead. But instead, Coronado’s defense took matters into its own hands to add to its advantage.
Coronado swarmed Liberty quarterback Jamar Malone and forced a fumble that Derek Hurley recovered at the goal line for a touchdown to put the Cougars ahead by 13.
Coronado forced five turnovers, and the Cougars, No. 4 in the Review-Journal’s Class 5A rankings, made a statement with a 47-7 home win over No. 3 Liberty in the teams’ Class 5A Division I league opener.
“It was great,” Hurley said of the turnover. “Momentum is a big part of football. … On defense, we always try to get turnovers, so if we can get five, it’s pretty hard to beat that.”
Liberty (1-4, 0-1) had won the previous 16 meetings against Coronado (3-1, 1-0). The last time Coronado defeated Liberty was in 2007.
“(This kind of win) shows that our program, with the senior leadership that we have, that we’re capable,” Coronado coach Shawn Dupris said. “We were disappointed in our game a couple weeks ago against Lincoln (California), and we didn’t give ourselves a chance. When we give ourselves a chance and play solid football, we’re a pretty good football team.”
Krause completed 14 of 19 passes for 187 yards and threw three touchdown passes. JJ Buchanan, a Utah commit, caught two touchdowns, and Hurley rushed for a score and returned two fumbles for touchdowns.
The Cougars returned three turnovers for touchdowns overall, and most of the second half was played under a running clock.
“We always expect to win, but we never expect to blow a team out,” Krause said. “We expect a good game. Being able to execute on all three levels, we were able to do what we needed to run the score. That’s a great team, we have all the respect, but we came out and played for each other.”
Liberty managed just 162 yards of offense compared to Coronado’s 312, but most of that came on a 78-yard Malone touchdown pass. The Patriots did not run a play in Coronado territory in the first half.
Buchanan’s first touchdown catch right before halftime was a highlight-reel grab and helped Coronado start to put the game out of reach. Krause threw a lob pass to the back corner of the end zone, and Buchanan made a spectacular one-handed catch with a Liberty defender draped over him with seven seconds left to put the Cougars ahead 26-7 at halftime.
“I’m always going to throw it to JJ when it’s one-on-one,” Krause said. “When he caught it, I was shocked, and my mouth dropped. That’s JJ for you. He does that on a daily basis and shows why he’s the player he is. I’m always going to trust him.”
Coronado didn’t ease off the gas pedal in the second half. Krause added an 11-yard touchdown pass to Buchanan, and the Cougars’ defense scored twice when Marquesion Floyde returned an interception for a score and Hurley recovered a fumble and raced 60 yards for a touchdown to put the Cougars up 47-7 late in the third quarter and trigger the running clock.
“It definitely set the pace,” Dupris said of the turnovers. “Our defense came out and smacked and played fast and played really mean. They got to the football and got to the quarterback, and the best thing was we created (the turnovers), it wasn’t given to us. We had to earn that, and I’m really proud of their effort.”
Coronado next hosts No. 2 Arbor View, a 35-7 winner Friday over Basic, at 6 p.m. next Friday.
Hurley scored on a 2-yard run on the opening drive, which was set up by a 78-yard pass from Krause to Scott Holper to put Coronado ahead 7-0. Liberty answered right back when Malone connected with Giovanni Criss, and the senior wide receiver raced 78 yards for a touchdown to tie the score.
Krause hit Holper for a 7-yard touchdown pass to put Coronado ahead 14-7 late in the first quarter.
The senior quarterback threw the interception to Tyson Le’au early in the second quarter, but Coronado ended the drive early when the pressure got to Malone at the goal line, forcing a fumble, and Hurley scored on the recovery to put the Cougars ahead 20-7.
Isaiah Colbert picked off Malone midway through the second quarter, but Coronado couldn’t capitalize on a drive that started in Liberty territory. Jackson Humphries came up with the Cougars’ third turnover of the first half, which helped set up the Buchanan touchdown catch.
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.