'Dark Side', Special Teams Key As Reivers Resist Red Ravens Comeback

Coffeyville, KS

NJCAA #2 Iowa Western absorbed Tenth-ranked Coffeyville's second-half comeback attempt and closed strong for a 35–24 road win at Veterans Memorial Stadium, moving to 4–1 behind a balanced offense, a special-teams jolt, and a pass rush that piled up nine sacks.

Coffeyville led through the first quarter on an Aidan Burgess 24-yard field goal, but the Reivers answered with a 13-play, 75-yard drive capped by Malachi Marshall's 3-yard TD pass to DeAndre Horn just 45 seconds into the second stanza. Special teams flipped the game minutes later when a Jaxon Cherry bullrush blocked a punt and Tony Busch scooped and scored from 20 yards out for the first special teams touchdown of the year. Luke Sternberg followed that up by forcing and recovering a fumble on the ensuing kickoff to set up a short field, Daniel Swinney rewarded the effort by punching in a 6-yard score to give IWCC a 21–3 lead into halftime.

As they've done before at Veterans Memorial Stadium, the Red Ravens stormed back. Quarterback Mac Armstrong led an 85-yard march that he finished with a 3-yard keeper, and, after a successful on-side kick, found Tyler Jackson on a 33-yard strike to trim it to 21–17. A pair of 15-yard penalties after the score gave Iowa Western a short field and their response was clinical. Marshall completed passes to Corey Washington and Jaivyn Moore before finding Washington for the receiver's first score of the season on a 2-yard TD pass to restore a two-score cushion at 28–17. 

The Reivers leaned on their ground game to put it away. A 39-yard fourth-quarter drive, helped along by a Coffeyville unsportsmanlike penalty, ended with Swinney muscling over from the 1-yard line for his second touchdown and a 35–17 lead. Coffeyville's Jackson added a late 29-yard TD from Armstrong, but Iowa Western's defense slammed the door from there.

Marshall finished 21-for-33 for 160 yards and two touchdowns (Horn 3-yd; Washington 2-yd), distributing completions to nine receivers; Washington led with 3 receptions for 36 yards and a TD, and Horn had 3 for 16 and a score. On the ground, Swinney powered the offense with 97 yards and two TDs on 18 carries, while D'Angelo Barkue added 31 and Jamari Ford chipped 15 as the Reivers totaled 134 rushing yards and 294 yards of offense.

The defense owned the line of scrimmage with nine sacks for 43 yards and 14 total tackles for loss. Blake Hawkins and Jaxon Cherry each logged 2.5 sacks, B.J. Campbell had 1.5, and Jeremy Lewis, Ephraim Deese, and Aiden Morgan chipped in on shared sacks. Jerome Baker led with eight tackles and 1.5 TFL, while Sternberg's forced fumble and recovery on kickoff set up a short-field touchdown. Iowa Western held the Red Ravens to 13 net rushing yards and allowed just two of 13 conversions on third down. The nine sacks were the most for the squad since piling up 10 against Ellsworth during the 2023 season. 

Another tough challenge awaits as Coach Scott Strohmeier's Reivers head to Utah to face 13th ranked Snow College under the lights. The Badgers home field is one of the most formidable at the NJCAA level with a sold out crowd expected for the Saturday night match-up.

All the action can be heard, free of charge, on the Reiver Sports Network with Jake Ryan, Russ Nelsen, Josh Odson and Tony Boone on the call. The game can also be found on Iowa Western's 100,000-watt FM radio station, 89.7 The River.  The RSN Countdown to Kickoff begins at 7:30 PM from Terry Foote Stadium with kickoff set for 8:00 PM.

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