The defense was superb, and so were Caleb Deal and AJ Woods, but Evangel was a little bit better.
Kansas Wesleyan led 13-7 at halftime before the Valor scored two touchdowns less than a minute apart midway through the third quarter and held on for a 24-16 Kansas Conference victory Saturday afternoon at Gene Bissell Field at JRI Hospitality Stadium in the Graves Family Sports Complex.
The loss ended KWU's four-game winning streak and gave the Coyotes a 4-2 record heading into the KCAC bye week next Saturday. They return Oct. 17 for their Homecoming game against Saint Mary starting at 4 p.m. at JRI Stadium.
"I felt like it would come down to the fourth quarter, which it did," KWU coach Matt Middleton said on the postgame radio show. "Obviously, we had some opportunities but offensively at times we shot ourselves in the foot with penalties (eight for 80 yards). When you get behind the sticks against a really good team, it's really hard to get that back.
"Their (defensive) front four is phenomenal; they want to force you to try to throw it. I hate losing but I'm proud of the kids for fighting for 60 minutes."
Wesleyan led 10-7 at halftime. Donniel Wilson's 55-yard interception return for a touchdown with 9:07 left in the first quarter gave the Coyotes a 7-0 lead.
Woods' 34-yard field goal with 7:56 remaining before halftime increased the lead to 10-0, but Evangel (4-2) responded on Matt Allen's 28-yard touchdown pass to Brady Allen that trimmed the advantage to 10-7 with 2:56 left.
Woods' 24-yard field goal eight seconds before intermission made it 13-7. It finished off a 70-yard, 16-play drive with all 70 yards coming on running plays.
Evangel took its first lead at the 7:34 mark of the third quarter; Allen hitting Brady Allen with a 14-yard pass for the touchdown.
The Valor was back in the end zone 59 seconds later when Cullen Snow intercepted a Caleb Deal pass and returned it 24 yards for a touchdown that increased the lead to 21-13.
Troy Sylve sacked Allen and forced a fumble in the process that Trindon Moore recovered at the KWU 28 early in the fourth quarter. The Coyotes drove to the EU 19 before stalling, but Woods saved the day with a 27-yard field goal that cut the deficit to 21-16 with 7:44 left.
Cody Vorsay's 32-yard field goal with 59 seconds left ended the scoring.
Evangel finished with 320 yards including 168 rushing, the most KWU's has allowed this season, but the defense did its part overall according to Middleton. Gavin Skerik had nine tackles and Sylve eight.
"Our defense played well again," he said. "We had three field goals on offense, not seven points."
The Coyotes had 249 yards, 137 rushing and 112 passing. Deal had 91 yards rushing on 23 carries and Sam Mitchum 39 on 10 attempts. Deal was 12 of 25 passing and was sacked three times. Will Wilcox and Max Wilson caught four passes apiece.
"Caleb was an absolute war daddy," Middleton said. "We asked him to do a lot from that spot. You never want to talk about it, but injuries have affected us at this moment. We need this bye week. We need two weeks to try to get some things figured out, get back on track and do some of these things different."
Another bright spot for KWU was punter Shea Yurkunas, who averaged 49.7 yards on seven kicks that included an 82-yarder midway through the fourth quarter.