Disappointment. Frustration. Surprise.

Those words described the Coe Kohawks after they lost to Wisconsin-Stevens Point, 37-21, in a homecoming football game at Clark Field Saturday.

Coe built a 21-14 lead and appeared in good shape late in the first half, but Stevens Point scored 23 unanswered points and blanked the Kohawks in the entire second half.

Coe Coach Steve Staker was surprised his club was unable to score in the second half after putting 21 points on the board in the second period alone.

"Yeah, I am," he said. "I really did not expect that at all. Not at all."

The Kohawks (1-2) drove to the 12-yard line in the final minute of the first half with their 21-14 advantage, looking for a 28-14 cushion with a touchdown or a 24-14 lead with a field goal. Instead, a holding penalty and a sack pushed the Kohawks out of field goal range and they lost the ball on downs at the Stevens Point 30-yard with just 29 seconds left before intermission.

Stevens Point (1-1) quickly completed two passes and got a 47-yard field goal from Jesse Vervelde on the final play of the half to pull within 21-17 at intermission.

"The last three minutes of that first half were really critical," said Coe quarterback Josh Rekers. "We can't punch it in, end up going backwards, get a holding call. And then they come down and make a few pass plays and their kicker made a hell of a kick to end that half."

Staker agreed with his quarterback.

"I thought the big thing was the momentum they got right at the end of the first half," the coach said. "We should have put the ball in the end zone for seven. They end up getting a field goal and it's a 10-point turnaround. And going in they have the momentum. That was upsetting."

It got worse in the second half.

The Kohawks got the ball to start the third quarter and had to punt, but were unable to down the ball at the 1-yard line and gave Stevens Point the ball at the 20 instead. Kyle Larson hit Matt Sosinsky in stride on a medium-range pass on their first play from scrimmage and Sosinsky raced all the way to the end zone to give Stevens Point a 24-21 lead with the PAT.

That was the beginning of the end. The Kohawks could not mount any sustained drives, killing themselves with penalties, sacks and missed opportunities.

Meanwhile, Stevens Point got a 29-yard TD scamper from Christian Almonte in the third quarter and a 58-yard touchdown from Almonte in the final stanza to win the first meeting ever between these two schools.

Larson completed only 16 of 28 passes, but there were several long plays that hurt the Kohawks. "I'm kind of upset with the receivers that got behind our secondary," said Staker. "That killed us."

Rekers, who ranked sixth in NCAA Division III passing when the day began, hit 22 of 38 passes for 273 yards and two touchdowns before being relieved by Gavin Glenn late in the game. Rekers hit Colin Ferring with a 4-yard touchdown pass and found Nicholas Lenstra for a 28-yard score in the second quarter, but those were the highlights.

"The second half we couldn't string drives together," said Rekers. "We'd have a big play, and then we'd just fall. We kept falling. We've got to finish drives."

Rekers was naturally disappointed with the outcome.

"Nobody likes to lose, including myself," he said. "Right after a loss is pretty tough.

"But it's never as bad as it seems, and it's never as good as it seems. That's the mentality I like to take. Personally, I need to improve, as well as every other man on this team."

Sam Lahr carried the ball 21 times for 100 yards and scored on a 2-yard run for Coe. Trevor Heitland caught seven passes for 74 yards for the Kohawks.

There were 24 penalties in the game, with 12 called again each side. Coe was penalized 128 yards.

"Every time I turned around there was a penalty," said Staker. "It hurt both of us, I thought, from establishing any kind of rhythm. Holy cow, there was just a ton of penalties."

The start of Saturday's game was delayed 50 minutes due to lightning. The Kohawks are idle next Saturday before hosting Loras in the Iowa Conference opener Oct. 4.

WIS-SP       COE

First downs             18             22
Rushes-yards       31-182        39-92
Passing yards          240           292
Comp-Att-Int       16-28-0       25-43-1
Fumbles-lost           1-0            0-0
Punts-avg.            5-36.4        6-40.0
Penalties-yards       12-105      12-138

Wisconsin-SP       7  10  13  7 - 37
Coe                    0  21   0  0 - 21

Scoring plays

SP - Jake Menzel 10 run (Jesse Vervelde kick)
COE -Colin Ferring 4 pass from Josh Rekers (Brandon Abbas kick)
SP - Christian Almonte 14 run (Verbelde kick)
COE -Nicholas Lenstra 28 pass from Rekers (Abbas kick)
COE -Sam Lahr 2 run (Abbas kick)
SP - Vervelde 47 FG
SP - Matt Sosinsky 80 pass from Kyle Larson (Vervelde kick)
SP - Almonte 29 run (kick blocked)
SP - Almonte 58 run (Vervelde kick)

Individual Statistics

Rushing

Stevens Point - Almonte 5-113, Menzel 21-75, Larson 5-minus 6.
Coe - Lahr 21-100, Storla 7-15, Heitland 1-5, Ferring 2-0.

Passing

Stevens Point - Larson 16-28-0, 240.
Coe - Rekers 22-38-1, 273; Glenn 3-5-0, 19.

Receiving

Stevens Point - Pankow 6-47, Sosinsky 5-127, Taylor 3-41, Krupp 2-25.
Coe - Heitland 7-74, Phillips 4-58, Kopp 3-39, Christenson 3-34, Lenstra 1-28, Storla 1-23, Stanford 1-6, Ferring 1-4, Lensing 1-2.