HILLSBORO – Kansas Wesleyan's passing prowess is well documented.
Led by quarterback Isaiah Randalle (JR/Sacramento, Calif.) and receivers Stevie Williams (SR/Los Angeles, Calif.), Eren Jenkins (FR/Chicago, Ill.) and Drevon Macon (JR/Los Angeles, Calif.) the No. 7-ranked Coyotes have been irrepressible when throwing the football this season as evidenced by the fact they're averaging 324 yards per game.
Saturday, though, in their Kansas Conference game against Tabor their aerial act ran headlong into its most significant obstacle so far – multiple injuries. Macon and starting center Trace Ott (JR/Orange Beach, Ala.) didn't play and Randalle departed after suffering an injury with 2:19 left in the opening quarter and didn't return.
But the offense didn't skip a beat thanks to a steamroller ground game and a superhero effort by backup quarterback Tony White (JR/Cincinnati, Ohio).
Nick Allsman (SO/Belleville, Kan.) and CJ Fluker (FR/Defiance, Ohio) combined 251 yards rushing and four touchdowns and White ran for two more scores and threw for a third as KWU walloped the Bluejays 48-21 at Joel Wiens Stadium.
"Good teams find a way to win when adversity strikes," KWU coach Myers Hendrickson said on his postgame radio show. "That's what we're built for, that's what we're meant to do. So, when adversity came, and it came hard today on the road, our players came together and handled the adversity and got through it."
KWU (8-0 KCAC and overall) rushed for 327 yards on 56 attempts – a whopping 5.8 yards per carry. Allsman led the way with 130 yards on 17 carries and scored three touchdowns, Fluker had 121 on 22 tries and a score and White added 20 yards on four carries. The Coyotes finished with 568 total yards.
"We had two guys well over a hundred yards rushing which is tough to do against a good Tabor defense," Hendrickson said. "It's always tough to run the ball against Tabor, they play a really strong, sound four-man front."
Anthony Bargas (SO/Pittsburg, Calif.) replaced Ott in the middle and the offensive line continued its dominance unabated.
"I'm really proud of how our offensive line played," Hendrickson said. "When Anthony Bargas' number was called today he was ready to go. Up front across the board I thought all five players played as one and that was great to see for us to be able to rush the football."
The Coyotes' success running the ball also was reflected in time of possession – 37 minutes, 43 seconds for KWU to 22:17 for Tabor.
White, a transfer from Langston, was 12 of 17 passing for 121 yards and a touchdown. Randalle completed 9 of 15 passes for 73 yards before the injury.
"Tony practices great every single day, prepares like he's the starter," Hendrickson said. "There's not really a whole lot of change when he runs the offense. His strengths are similar to Isaiah's."
KWU trailed 7-6 when Randalle left but regained the lead on Allsman's first touchdown run, a 10-yarder, with 11:55 left in the half. The Coyotes tacked on two more scores in the quarter and led 27-7 at halftime – the first a 26-yard run by White, the second an Allsman run covering 13 yards.
The Bluejays scored on the opening possession of the third quarter on an 8-yard pass from Gustavo Villarreal to Angel Sanchez. KWU answered on White's 32-yard touchdown pass to Stevie Williams that made it 34-14 (Williams had eight catches for 76 yards).
Tabor, though, answered 11 seconds later on a 75-yard pass from Villarreal to Franklin Miller with 7:09 left in the third quarter, trimming the lead to 34-21. Allsman scored his third TD on a 5-yard run that extended the advantage to 41-21 with 3:01 remaining in the quarter.
White's second touchdown, a 3-yard run with 8:38 left, was game's final points.
Villarreal was 15 of 38 passing for 254 yards and three touchdowns and Sanchez had five catches for 101 yards and two scores. But the Bluejays (2-6 overall, 1-6 KCAC) had just 68 yards rushing on 26 attempts.
"They got a couple of (touchdowns) that were kind of long ones but they did not sustain drives throughout the course of the game," Hendrickson said. "They force you play assignment sound, fundamental defense because you don't know what they're going to come out in. You've got to be prepared in a lot of different facets and I felt like we did that today."
The Coyotes ended the regular season with a 5-0 record on the road. They finish with three consecutive contests at Graves Family Sports Complex starting with Ottawa at 1 p.m. next Saturday. The Braves (4-4 overall, 3-4 KCAC) defeated Friends 28-14 Saturday in Ottawa.