Drummer belts a strong beat for Kohawks

By Jim Ecker

CEDAR RAPIDS – Quincy Drummer has a musical name and he played the trumpet in middle school, but now he’s playing sweet music for the Coe football team.

Drummer ran for 223 yards and two touchdowns Saturday at the Kohawks whipped Central, 31-13, in an American Rivers Conference game on a hot afternoon at Clark Field.

“It was great,” said Drummer, a 5-foot-8 junior from Missouri City, Texas. “It was like nothing I did was wrong.”

Drummer broke loose for a 70-yard touchdown on Coe’s first possession to set the tone. He had several other runs that measured 20 and 30 yards and had a 31-yard touchdown negated by penalty.

He’s quick, elusive, fast and strong.

“He was unbelievable,” said Coe Coach Tyler Staker. “He was dialed in today. He was really cooking.”

Drummer collected his 223 yards on 26 carries for an average of 8.6 yards per try. The 70-yard touchdown was a thing of beauty, where he broke through the outside and raced down the near sideline.

“My tight end and tackle did their blocks and I just did my thing,” he remarked.

Staker rotated his two quarterbacks and got healthy production out of both. Brady Kelly, a senior who set school passing yards last year, hit 7 of 11 throws for 117 yards. Luke Smith, a sophomore, completed 6 of 9 passes for 40 yards and a flukey 2-yard touchdown pass. 

The Kohawks faced 4th-and-1 at the Central 2 when Smith took a shotgun snap, ran toward the line of scrimmage, bumped into traffic and dropped back to throw a jump-pass, but he slipped on the turf and tossed the ball into the end while he was falling down. Keller Hartl was there to catch it to make it 13-0.

“It was supposed to be a pop pass, but I also had the option of running it,” said Smith.

Slipping was not part of the plan. “I was supposed to jump,” he said. “At the moment it was a little scary. I heard the crowd roar and I thought, ‘Holy crap, he caught it.'”

The Kohawks put that play in the book in practice this week. It’s the old Tim Tebow Jump Pass, named after the former Heisman Trophy winner.

Coe collected 472 yards of total offense, played a strong game on defense and got sensational kicking from Jake Collett, who made a 28-yard field goal, hit all four of his PATs, averaged 38.8 yards on four booming punts and consistently blasted his kickoffs deep into the end zone.

“I was really happy with how our guys executed and played today,” said Staker. “We haven’t been able to put all three phases together. Today we played our best ball of the season season. Luke and Brady both had their best games today.”

Coe raised its records to 3-2 overall and 2-0 in the conference. Central is 2-3 overall and 0-2 in the league.

Central     0    0    6    7 – 13
Coe         14   3    7    7 – 31

Coe – Drummer 70 run (Collett kick)
Coe – Hartl 2 pass from Smith (Collett kick)
Coe – Collett 28 FG
Central – Grunder 21 run (kick failed)
Coe – Drummer 3 ru (Collett kick)
Central – Klein 84 pass from Connolly
Coe – White 1 run (Collett kick