Coronado capitalizes off turnover-riddled Las Vegas

Coronado wanted to finish its non-conference schedule on a positive note after having a grueling past couple of weeks.

The Cougars had no idea No. 8 Las Vegas would visit them bearing gifts.

The Wildcats committed five first-half turnovers, which sparked host Coronado to a 27-0 halftime lead. The Cougars coasted to a 34-13 victory from there.

Senior quarterback John Farella, who threw three touchdown passes in the first half for Coronado (3-2), said his team was determined to head into Southeast League play positively.

“I think we had a sense of urgency tonight,” Farella said. “We moved the ball well. The running backs ran well. The line opened up holes for them and gave me a little bit of time (to throw).”

Farella finished 16 of 32 for 160 yards. Thanks to a few of those early Wildcat turnovers, Farella threw a pair of TD passes in a span of 59 seconds in the first quarter to put the Cougars in the driver’s seat.

Starting on its own 6-yard line, Coronado marched to the end zone after Las Vegas muffed a punt return. Tanner Gorski hauled in a 10-yard TD pass from Farella to cap the drive.

The Wildcats (2-3) then fumbled the ball away to the Cougars on the ensuing kickoff, and Coronado scored three plays later on a Farella-to-Travis Bowman 20-yard touchdown pass to make it 13-0.

“We had short field a lot,” Coronado coach Brad Talich said. “Las Vegas made some errors that we converted on. We played well in the first half. We need to work on our urgency in the second half, and just making sure we are executing in the second half. But Las Vegas is a good program, and it was a good win for our kids.”

Another muffed punt return by Las Vegas in the second quarter led to Nick Trejo’s 1-yard touchdown run that pushed the lead to 20-0.

Trejo had 17 carries for 71 yards, including a second touchdown run of 11 yards in the third quarter for Coronado.

Aaron Cotton’s 52-yard interception return to the Wildcat 20-yard line set up Farella’s 1-yard TD pass to Justin Belknap, pushing the Cougars’ lead to four scores with 11 seconds before halftime.

“Defense and special teams won us the game,” Farella said. “Yeah, we put up 34 points on a really good Las Vegas team, but most of that was because of field position. Special teams were just outstanding. They set the tone for the offense tonight.”

Talich said he was pleased the way his team has fought in its opening slate of games leading up to next week’s league opener at Green Valley.

“When we saw the schedule we knew we were playing some good teams in Liberty, Arbor View, Las Vegas and Huntington Beach of California,” he said. “To come out of that 3-2, and being just a few plays from being 5-0, is pretty impressive for our program. That will certainly shotgun us into conference play.”

Farella said the difficult schedule has given the Cougars confidence heading into league play.

“If we do what we did this week, come out and play hard whistle to whistle, I don’t think there is anyone who can really compete with us,” Farella said.