Pair of punt returns leads Colgan to playoff win

The offense was clicking and the defense was moving on all cylinders, but Tuesday night, it was the special teams that told the story.
Tyler Jeck and Zach Smith each returned punts for touchdowns to put the early final nail in the coffin of the Sedan Blue Devils as the St. Mary’s Colgan Panthers took a 41-6 win in the bi-district football championship game at Hutchinson Field.
And, initially, Sedan looked as if they were going to give the Panthers a game as their first drive took them to their own 43 before they had to punt the ball away.
Then, Jeck found a row of blockers on the punt return and dashed 68 yards for a touchdown.
It was a play that Colgan head coach Chuck Smith thought maybe should not have happened.
“I thought he (Jeck) maybe should have called for the fair catch because he had to come up to make the catch,” Smith said.
Nonetheless, the punt return seemed to get the proverbial ball rolling for the Panthers.
But, offensively, there was not a lot Colgan could do because they only had the ball for 1 minute, 47 seconds in the first quarter. Regardless, the Panthers made the most of their opportunities as they were up 21-0 in that span of time.
“I really didn’t know if our offense was going to get in the game in the first quarter,” Smith said. “Time of possession is big, but there are times when it is not that big.”
In that short span of time, the Panthers got their second punt return for a touchdown after the Colgan defense held Sedan to another punt and Smith returned the third punt of the game, 64 yards for another touchdown.
That only came after the Panthers capped a 4-play, 32-yard drive that lasted all of 1:23 in the first quarter when Alex Evans plunged in for a 5-yard touchdown.
“The first punt was the worst for us,” said Sedan head coach Rick Chrisman. “We could not get anything going on offense that just broke our backs.”
The offensive struggles continued throughout the first half as the Colgan defense kept Sedan on their own side of the field for the entire half.
After Stuart Mitchelson notched a 22-yard touchdown run, Sedan seemed to get their first trip across midfield, but running back Brady McCoy fumbled the ball back to Colgan when Jeck came up with the recovery at the Colgan 48.
Five plays later, Colgan scored after quarterback Jesse Watt hit Jeck on a 14-yard touchdown pass, giving the Panthers a 35-0 lead heading into halftime.
The Colgan defense held throughout the first half, only allowing one first down for the Blue Devils.
In the first half, the Blue Devils managed just eight total offensive yards. Sedan did have 55 yards in penalties in the first half. Colgan, on the other hand, had 166 total yards on offense and racked up 12 first downs.
“They just dominated the line of scrimmage,” Chrisman said. “They pushed us around and pushed us down.”
Mitchelson picked up his second score of the game late in the third quarter on a 10-yard pass from Watt.
Sedan got on the board as the game-clock expired with a 5-yard run from McCoy.
“They’re a good team,” Chrisman said. “We’ve played some good competition like Olpe and Oswego and I think they [Colgan] are better.”
Smith said that, while the punt returns for touchdowns were solid, the Colgan offense still needed work as they look deep into the playoffs.
“We are a big-play team and I hope that continues,” Smith said. “But, at some point they will stop and we have to be able to grind it out on offense.”

Matthew Clark can be reached at matthew.clark@morningsun.net or at 620-231-2600, Ext. 140. Follow Morning Sun sports at twitter.com/mssports