For Mark Atwater, it was a story that has played out too many times for the Coe football team in 2015.

The senior linebacker from Linn-Mar couldn't hide his disgust and disappointment Saturday afternoon at Clark Field where the Kohawks played host to Iowa Conference rival Simpson for Homecoming."We've done this too many times this season," Atwater said after the Kohawks' 18-15 loss before an overflow crowd of 4,876 fans. "We just didn't play well enough. We couldn't get off the field and we made too many mistakes.

"It's kinda been the tale of our season," he continued. "We just continue to shoot ourselves in the foot. It's frustrating."

Coe's defense was on the field for nearly 42 minutes against a Simpson offense content to try and ground out yards. In spite all that, Coe had the ball in the final seconds with a chance to tie or win.

"We just let that one slip away," said Coe Coach Steve Staker. "We made some costly mistakes. We had two penalties on third down plays where we would have been off the field.

"It's just a lot of little things that end up making the difference in a football game."

Although Simpson (3-3, 2-1 IIAC) was controlling the game, the Storm were not putting any points on the board. Drew Jensen missed a 36-yard field goal try with 11:43 left in the second quarter.

It appeared Coe might make it to halftime with the score tied, but Giscard Philizaire muffed a Simpson punt with just over five minutes left in the half and The Storm's Zach Rathman recovered at the Coe 12.

Simpson needed five plays to finally score as Caleb Frye hit tight end Nathan Russell on a 3-yard pass with just 18 seconds remaining. The PAT kick was blocked, leaving Coe down 6-0 at the half.

"Losing the punt was a big play," Staker said. "They jumped right on it and took it in."

Coe took the lead in the third quarter by marching 85 yards on 13 plays. Quarterback Josh Rekers ran it in from the 2. Brandon Abbas' PAT kick gave the Kohawks a 7-6 lead.

"I'm proud of the way we kept battling," Atwater said. "This just felt like a game we should have won."

It didn't take Simpson long to regain the lead. Running back Jordan Beem, who finished with 193 yards on 34 carries, capped off a seven-play drive with a 35-yard run. A two-point run attempt failed, leaving Simpson up 12-7.

Beem appeared to put the game away on his second TD run, a 21-yarder with 9:24 remaining. But Simpson again missed on a two-point try and Coe had life, trailing 18-7.

Rekers connected with Elijah Phillips for 48 yards on a screen pass on the first play after the kickoff to put Coe at the Simpson 17. Three plays later, Rekers hit Colton Storla with a swing pass and Storla took it in for the score. Phillips ran in the 2-point conversion and the deficit was 18-15 with 8:02 remaining.

Simpson then held the ball until the final 42 seconds of the game and punted to Coe at its own 12 with no timeouts remaining. Rekers hit Phillips for 20, Storla for 4 and a big 34 yarder to former Prairie standout Demetrius Harper, taking the ball to the Simpson 30 with 26 seconds remaining.

After an incompletion, Rekers took a sack. Coe hurried to the line and spiked the ball with two seconds remaining. A desperation heave into the end zone on the final play was batted away.

"We just couldn't take a sack there," Staker said. "Not to make excuses, but we played without six starters today, including our center and two H-backs. We had to take a couple timeouts because the guy we had at H-back hadn't been there and was out of position on some plays."

Coe struggled running the ball, mustering only 57 yards on the ground. Rekers hit 16 of 27 passes for 261 yards and no interceptions.

The Kohawks (2-5, 1-3) play next Saturday at Central. Simpson will be at Loras.

SIMPSON 18, COE 15

SIMP            COE

First downs             27               16
Rushes-yards       51-264         27-57
Passing yards        135              261
Comp-Att-Int      14-25-1        16-28-0
Fumbles-lost           2-0             2-2
Punts-avg.           3-30.0        4-34.8
Penalties-yards      4-25            4-26

Simpson     0  6  6  6 - 18
Coe           0  0  7  8 - 15

Scoring plays

S - Nathan Russell 3 pass from Caleb Frye (kick blocked)
C - Josh Rekers 2 run (Brandon Abbas kick)
S - Jordan Beem 35 run (run failed)
S - Beem 21 run (pass failed)
C - Colton Storla 14 pass from Rekers (Elijah Phillips run)

Individual Statistics

Rushing

Simpson - Jordan Beem 34-193, Caleb Frye 8-44, Cole Martin 4-13, Davey Jurgens 3-13, Travis Tupper 1-8, Team 1-(minus 7)

Coe - Colton Storla 10-30, Mark Atwater 1-20, Sam Lahr 8-20, Elijah Phillips 2-15, Josh Rekers 6-(minus 28).

Passing

Simpson - Caleb Frye 14-25-1-135.

Coe - Josh Rekers 16-27-0-261. Team 0-1-0-0.

Receiving

Simpson - Nate Connealy 4-48, Braden Meints 3-29, Devin Norman 3-24, Jordan Beem 1-16, Corbin Clark 1-8, Jackson Redmond 1-7, Nathan Russell 1-3.

Coe - Elijah Phillips 5-105, Demetrius Harper 2-54, Tyler Gunderson 2-36, Kazumasa Ikoma 2-17, Mitchell Malloy 2-17, Sam Lahr 1-14.