Cougars fight hard but can not finish in a tough loss to Air Academy

Cougars offense comes up 2 points short in a hard fought battle

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Zak Pasquarello, Staff Writer

Coronado’s homecoming football game began with an electrifying kick return touchdown on the opening kickoff from LaDarius Mays, 11. Unfortunately this would be the majority of success the team would find all night, only scoring 13 points throughout the game; the Cougars lost 15-13. The Coronado run defense struggled: the team gave up 322 rushing yards and 250 of them rushing yards to one person. The Cadets averaged 8.5 yards per carry thus only forcing them to throw the ball 10 times; they only completed 3 of those passes, however. The Cougar offense, much like the defense, struggled greatly and were only able to put up a total of 107 yards of total offense. The Cougars could not find the endzone as the only 2 touchdowns were off a kick return and a fumble recovery both by Mays. Starting offensive lineman Jewlz Velasquez, 12, talked about how the offense can improve for the next game: “our offensive line needs to focus on making holes for our running back and holding blocks on passes.”  The offensive line is the centerpiece of the offense; even though they are not the most popular, they make the offense function. With the offensive line improving it allows us to get the ball to our weapons and creating a more efficient offense. Velasquez also said, “our [defensive] line has to get a better push on the quarterback.” Much like the offensive line, the defensive line also is the focal point of the defense. For a defensive back, it is impossible to defend someone for a long period of time which is why a better push is so important because it forces the opposing quarterback to release the ball sooner. If fixed, the Cougars can look to win more game by improving two focal point of a team. The Cougars will stay at home for their next game as they look to upset Pueblo South on October 11th at 6pm, under the lights of Gerry Berry.