No. 4 Coronado has too much firepower for Sierra Vista — PHOTOS
For a second Friday night, it appeared that Coronado’s JJ Buchanan had made a huge statement to begin the season, returning the opening kickoff 79 yards for a touchdown.
Even though that play was called back because of a penalty, Buchanan made plenty of noise.
The senior two-way standout, who has committed to play at Utah, caught two touchdown passes and had two tackles for loss to lead the Cougars to a 49-18 home win over Sierra Vista in the teams’ season opener.
“I mean, you saw it, two touchdowns, blowing on defense, like picks, sacks, everything.” senior quarterback Aiden Krause said of Buchanan’s impact. “He’s really the dude on the team, and we’re showing it. We’re giving him the ball when he can get open. They’re doubling him, but he’s still getting open on the double. So we’re trying to just feed him the ball when we can, and when he’s doubled, that means some other receiver is going to be open and it opens up the offense.”
Buchanan caught seven passes for 161 yards and the two TDs, all in the first half. He also had a key tackle for loss on fourth down to stop an early Sierra Vista drive. Buchanan left the game with cramps with about three minutes to play in the third quarter, but coach Shawn Dupris said his senior star should be fine.
“He’s a guy that plays both ways, he could play every position, plays all over the place” Dupris said. “He’s just a hell of an athlete. He played outstanding; (Krause) got him the ball, and everybody played really well.”
Krause and Buchanan gave the Cougars (1-0) an early lead when the senior quarterback stepped up and fired a 20-yard strike to Buchanan in the front of the end zone for a 7-0 lead with 4:44 to play in the first quarter. On the team’s next possession, Krause again found Buchanan for a TD, this time on a 25-yard play-action pass that made it 14-0 with 2:21 to go in the first.
Krause, who has committed to play at Georgetown, finished 16-for-22 for 259 yards and five TDs.
“Man, this is great,” Krause said of winning the season opener. “We worked all summer, practiced every day. You know, the O-line came out and showed that they’ve been working, the receivers did their job. My hat’s off to all of them. They made me look good.”
Sierra Vista’s own two-way star, Adonis Vaughn, kept the Mountain Lions (0-1) in the game early. He caught a 50-yard TD pass from Charles Butera with 7:43 to go in the first half to cut the lead to 14-6. Butera rolled left on the play, then tossed the ball to Vaughn over the middle. Vaughn somehow escaped the crowd in the middle of the field and raced down the right sideline for the score.
He added a 6-yard TD run that cut the lead to 21-12 with 1:32 to go in the first half. Vaughn also caught an 18-yard scoring pass pass from Butera with 3:06 to go in the third quarter that cut the lead to 35-18.
But it was all Coronado from there, as Christian Nabong returned the ensuing kickoff 86 yards for a score, and the Mountain Lions wouldn’t threaten again.
Nabong also caught an 11-yard TD pass from Krause, who completed a pair of TD passes to Scott Holper.
Derek Hurley rushed for 73 yards and a TD on 13 carries for the Cougars, No. 4 in the Review-Journal’s Class 5A rankings.
“We were really excited,” Dupris said. “There’s games that happened last week and we were kind of giddy about it. It was really fun to get out here and play, a great crowd, a great environment.”
Vaughn finished with eight catches for 215 yards and also had three carries for 10 yards. Butera completed 16 of 27 passes for 310 yards and the two TDs.
But Coronado’s defense made things difficult for Butera, sacking him four times. The Cougars also had eight tackles for loss. Neville Roberts led the defense with a sack and two tackles for loss.
