Since going 0-9 and suffering a rare loss to SEK league rival Parsons in 2015, the Coffeyville-Field Kindley Golden Tornado football team have beaten The Vikings of Parsons High School two years in-a-row now.
Behind second-year head coach Darrin Wegner, the ‘Nado have built a respectful offense around Junior Quaterback CJ Kelley. They notched their first win of the 2017 season on Friday, by way of an early shootout, holing onto a win which resulted in a score of 48-21.
The opening kickoff of the game on Friday night was muffed by Parsons and recovered by Coffeyville to set them up with great field position for the first drive of the ball game. Soon thereafter, Jaylen Logan rushed for a touchdown and the team also added a two-point conversion, giving them an early 8-0 lead. Soon after getting the ball back, Logan would find the end-zone again on a long run, with a key block coming from Junior receiver Tajahn Thomas. The team was good for the second time in a row on the two-point try, giving them a 16-0 lead early on in the game. Parsons would answer quickly and make good on the conversion to get within 16-8. The following possession would be fairly brief as Kelley went on to find Senior Trey Myrie on a 72-yard pass good for a third ‘Nado score. Afterwards, back Jacob Jackson would punch it in for his third two-point conversion giving Coffeyville a 24-8 lead heading into the second quarter.
Parsons opened the scoring in the second quarter finding the end-zone for a second time. After missing the PAT, the score would then show 24-14 in favor of Coffeyville. On the following drive the ‘Nado offense drove deep into Viking territory to set up a QB keeper play from Kelley at the one-yard-line to score once more, Logan added the two-point coversion. Parsons quarterback Gage Friess was picked off by Tajahn Thomas to end the half. As the teams hit the locker room for the break, Coffeyville led by a score of 32-14.
The scoring slowed down in second half of the game, as only one score came in all of the third quarter. That sole score came on the opening drive of the quarter, as Coffeyville drove the field and put only six (6) on the board, after a failed two-point conversion try, making the score 38-14 at the end of the third.
On the opening drive of the fourth and final period Coffeyville extended their lead by eight (8) more points, bringing the score to 46-14. Then, with 5:04 to play, The Vikings would be tackled for a loss in their own end-zone resulting in a safety, adding two (2) more points to make it a thirty-four (34) point contest, with a score of 48-14. Parsons would add a third and final score to end the game, bringing the gap to 48-21, following a Cody Stephens extra-point.
Coffeyville’s CJ Kelley never showed any doubt while leading his team to victory on Friday, although Parsons was let back into the game several times early on.
“We came out and jumped right on them from the get go we wasted no time to put points on the board”, Kelley stated. “I just felt like we were the better team from the beginning.”
The ‘Nado dropped their season-opener for a second consecutive year, although this time they played western powerhouse Great Bend Panthers much closer up until the fourth quarter.
“Well we can only get better and go on a run and rack the wins”, said Kelley, referring to bouncing back from their week one loss. “We need to prove why we don’t need to be ranked 5th [in the SEK league] “.
Kelley remains confident that his team will do much better than the voters have predicted them to, being chosen to finish second to last in the Southeast Kansas preseason coaches poll. When asked where he thinks the team will stand once all is said and done, he stated the following:
“1st or Second”, replied the Junior starting quarterback. “We came out [in the] first game and didn’t just roll over. I think Great Bend [would] beat everybody in the SEK and we played pretty great against them”.
Adding a win to their record, Coffeyville improves to 1-1 on the season, with a league record of 1-0 now. Meanwhile, Parsons falls to 0-2, with a record of 0-2 as well against SEK opponents. The ‘Nado will travel to face the CNC (Crawford-Neosho-Cherokee) league’s Riverton (0-2) on Friday. They beat the Rams 44-12 last season. On the other hand, Parsons awaits a Friday-night home battle against a winless Independence Bulldogs (0-2) team which whom they lost to last season, by a score of 27-7.