CEDAR RAPIDS -- Defense ruled the day at Clark Field.
Wartburg just had a little more of it.
"We knew it was going to be a dogfight," Coe football coach Tyler Staker said after the Kohawks fell to the 13th-ranked Knights, 14-7, in an American Rivers Conference football game Saturday.
"We knew it was going to come down to a couple of plays. I tip my hat to them. They played a really good game and they made a couple more plays than we did."
Coe has lost its last seven meetings to Wartburg. The Kohawks entered the showdown averaging more than 42 points per game, but were held scoreless until midway through the fourth quarter, finished with just 264 total yards, punted six times and turned it over on downs twice.
"They're a good team," said Wartburg junior defensive back Conner Grover, who prepped at Dyersville Beckman. "Defensively, we were just staying together. We have got each other's back. All 11 flying to the ball every play and just knowing that I am out there with those other 10 guys, that's why we do it. That's why we were able to hold them to seven points and just keep grinding away."
The win vaults Wartburg (6-1, 5-0 ARC) to the top of the conference standings as the only team still undefeated in conference play. Grover was lone of three Wartburg defenders with seven tackles in the contest. Wartburg junior linebacker Keenan Tyler - a Decorah graduate - also had seven tackles, which raised his season total to a team-best 70.
"We just stuck to the basics," Tyler said. "We had a good week of practice and we just stuck to the game plan. We had an idea. We all watched film all week. We did what we do. They are a good offense, but we stopped them."
After a scoreless first half, Wartburg broke through with touchdown drives on its first two second-half possessions. Wartburg senior quarterback Carter Markham broke the scoreless stalemate with a 1-yard touchdown midway through the third quarter, while junior Leo Dodd - the Knights' other quarterback - fired a 43-yard touchdown pass to Justis Bachman to extend the Wartburg advantage to 14-0 with 10:50 to go.
Coe avoided the shutout with a 10-yard touchdown run by senior tailback Trenton Barnes with 8:01 to go. The Kohawks had two more chances to tie the score, but the first ended with a turnover on downs and the second was halted by a sack on the game's final play.
The setback was the first this season for Coe (7-1, 5-1 ARC), which was seeking a signature win that would vault it into the D3football.com Top 25 poll.
"I know our guys are emotional after a tough like this and they have every right to be," Staker said. "But they have got to keep their heads up and not allow this one to linger, as tough as it is. We have got to get ourselves refocused and regrouped and ready to go next week."