The Coe football team saved its best performance of the season for the final game of the year.

The Kohawks rolled up 595 yards of total offense and spanked Buena Vista, 33-13, on a cold day at Clark Field with the temperature sitting in the mid-20's.

Josh Rekers passed for a career-best 383 yards and connected with Nick Lenstra for three TD passes, including a sensational one-handed grab in the end zone in the fourth quarter.

Placekicker Brandon Abbas wrote his name into the school record book, Marion grad Colton Storla ran for 111 yards and Coe's defense played a strong all-around game.

The Kohawks finished at 5-5 overall and 4-3 in the Iowa Conference. It was not the type of season they wanted, but they were determined to finish the year on a positive note.

"We wanted to send the senior class out right," said Rekers, who hit 24 of 31 passes. "They've meant so much to this program and to me personally as well. I did not want those guys to go out without a win."

Coe Coach Steve Staker dug into his players during a cold week of practice.

"I challenged them a little bit," he said. "You can be 4-and-6 or 5-and-5. I said 4-and-6, that ain't very good. But 5-and-5 and win your last game, you'll remember that."

Abbas tied a school record with four field goals from 26, 20, 28 and 31 yards. He also kicked three PATs and established a school record with 15 kicking points in one game.

Storla had rushed for only 246 yards all season as Coe's No.2 tailback, but he carried the load Saturday with 22 rushes for 111 yards. He broke numerous tackles and kept the chains moving.

"It was a lot of fun," said Storla. "It all started up front. Our line had some great blocks. I saw the holes and just took it."

The Kohawks had to shuffle their offensive line due to injuries, but they found the right combination against Buena Vista (5-5, 4-3). Storla found some holes and did a lot of the work by himself.

Staker liked what he saw from Storla.

"I'll tell you want I did," the coach said. "I went over to Coach (Ashton) Northern, our running backs coach, when I saw Storla run and I go, 'He is not coming out of the game. He is running so hard and so well, I want him in there. I want him running the football.'

"When you have a kid that's running well, don't take that away from him," said Staker. "Because he feels it, and you want to keep him in the game."

Rekers, a 6-foot-6 junior from Dike-New Hartford, found open receivers and fired bullets all day. He also made plays with his feet, scrambling away from trouble and finding targets for big gains.

Rekers connected with Lenstra for touchdown passes that covered 31, 12 and 15 yards. Rekers scrambled on the 15-yarder to Lenstra, finally spotting the senior from Western Dubuque near the back of the end zone. The pass was a little high, but Lenstra leaped and brought it down with his right hand.

"It was just a messed-up play," said Lenstra. "I started running around and Josh saw me open in the back of the end zone.

"I was a little scared," he said about the high throw, "but I came down with it somehow."

Lenstra caught seven passes for 117 yards. Davin Roach made seven receptions for 73 yards.

Freshmen Drew Heitland (Kennedy) and Robbie Peters (Mount Vernon) started at defensive end and helped the Kohawks hold Buena Vista's high-powered offense to 286 yards. Heitland finished with six tackles, three tackles-for-loss, two sacks, a forced fumble and a pass break-up. Peters made five tackles.

Evan Bolt and Dustin Elsbury led the defense with eight tackles.

COE 33, BUENA VISTA 13

BV         COE

First downs                14         31

Rushes-yards            25-82      41-162

Passing yards            204        433

Comp-Att-Int          19-35-2    28-39-0

Fumbles-lost              1-0        2-2

Punts-avg.               4-35.2     0-0.0

Penalties-yards           4-35       7-43

Buena Vista   6   0   0  7 - 13
Coe              3  13  10  7 - 33

Scoring Plays

BV - Bobby Brown 5 run (kick blocked)
COE - Brandon Abbas 26 FG
COE - Nick Lenstra 31 pass from Josh Rekers (Abbas kick)
COE - Abbas 20 FG
COE - Abbas 38 FG
COE - Abbas 31 FG
COE - Lenstra 12 pass from Rekers (Abbas kick)
COE - Lenstra 15 pass from Rekers (Abbas kick)
BV - Gunner Gilland 20 pass from Brown (Tyler Stolen kick)

Individual Statistics

Rushing

Buena Vista: Barrett 18-70, Brown 7-12.
Coe: Storla 22-11, Ferring 9-27, Lahr 3-17, Rekers 6-7, Lenstra 1-0.

Passing

Buena Vista: Brown 19-35-2, 204 yards
Coe: Rekers 24-31-0, 382 yards; Glenn 4-8-0, 51 yards.

Receiving

Buena Vista: Seitz 9-86, Cave 5-59, Barrett 3-22, Gilland 2-37.
Coe: Lenstra 7-117, Roach 7-73, Stanford 3-62, Doermann 2-45, Lensing 2-33, Storla 2-27, Phillips 1-43, Kopp 1-17, Christenson 1-14, Lahr 1-9, T.Heitland 1-minus 7.