OTTAWA - Kansas Wesleyan outgained Ottawa by 97 total yards, but a plethora of turnovers and mistakes were costly in the Coyotes' 33-13 season opening Kansas Conference loss Saturday night at AdventHealth Field.
Four of their five turnovers and a blocked punt came during the first half and resulted in four OU touchdowns. The Braves led 13-6 after the first quarter and 27-6 at halftime.
KWU finished with 277 total yards while Ottawa had 180. The Coyotes amassed 226 yards rushing, but quarterbacks Caleb Deal, Wyatt Oak and Alec Jackson completed 8 of 21 passes for 51 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions
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"Whatever could go wrong went wrong tonight," KWU coach Matt Middleton said on the postgame radio show. "Kudos to Ottawa, but we're better than that. I've got to do a better job coaching and am not pleased with how we played. It wasn't good."
Each of Ottawa's five scoring drives covered fewer than 40 yards. Middleton, though, was pleased with the overall play of the defense.
"We were so bad on offense that the defense was backed up the entire night," he said. "Under the circumstances against a really good quarterback (Luke Jackson), I thought they played well. But the point is we've got to get better; we've got to figure out our quarterback situation. We've got a lot of things we've got to figure out."
After holding OU three-and-out on the opening possession, the Coyotes also went three-and-out, but their punt was blocked. The Braves recovered at the 1-yard line and scored on the next play.
KWU fumbled the ensuing kickoff; Ottawa recovered at the 12 and scored three plays later.
Deal led the Coyotes on a 10-play, 71-yard drive on the next possession. Deal scored from the 4 with 4:55 left in the quarter, making it 13-6 after the PAT kick failed.
Deal, though, was intercepted on the next drive at the KWU 21-yard line and the Braves scored again to increase their lead to 20-6 with 12:56 left in the 2nd quarter. Later in the quarter Oak's pass was intercepted, and the Braves took over at the KWU 40. They scored again three plays later to go up27-6 with 2:59 left in the half.
Ottawa notched its last touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter just three plays after KWU mishandled a punt at its 10-yard line.
Troy Sylve, a freshman defensive lineman, scored Wesleyan's second touchdown on a two-yard run with 11 seconds left in the game.
Deal led the offense with 63 yards rushing on 12 carries; Tyson Johnson had 43 yards on 11 attempts and Rae'G Dailey 42 yards on 6 carries.
Ottawa finished with 14 yards rushing on 31 attempts, but quarterback Luke Jackson completed 16 of 32 passes for 166 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions and wasn't sacked. The Braves didn't commit a turnover.
"We've prepared all summer up to this point and to go out and do that, I'm just extremely disappointed," Middleton said. "We got to get it corrected."