Coronado defense ‘spectacular’ in playoff victory over Silverado

By Tristan Aird

Friday, Nov. 7, 2014 | 11:24 p.m.

Many superlatives could be used to describe the performance of a defense allowing only one touchdown in its opening playoff game.

Coronado coach Brad Talich picked a good one to describe his defense in the wake of a 20-7 home win over Silverado tonight to open the Division I Sunrise Region playoffs: “spectacular.”

That about summed up a Coronado defense that kept Silverado out of the end zone minus a long touchdown pass in the second quarter.

“We had only one flub jumping an out route, and mistakes are going to happen like that in football games,” Talich said. “Overall, I’m really pleased with our defense. All our kids played extremely hard and played well. We did a good job in stopping the run tonight.”

Coronado (7-3) advanced to host traditional Henderson rival Liberty (8-2) in the so-called “Rose Bowl” next week with a spot in the Sunrise Region title game up for grabs. The game is named as such because of the schools’ proximity to St. Rose Parkway.

On Friday, Coronado claimed a 13-0 first-quarter lead thanks to Spencer Cofer’s touchdown pass to Kainoa Granstrom and a TD run from Tanner Gorski.

“Tanner was tough on offense,” Talich said. “He did a good job for us blocking, caught some passes from Spencer. Tanner had a pretty good game.”

Nick Trejo added a touchdown run for Coronado.

“We certainly shot ourselves in the foot,” Talich said of the offense overall. “Silverado had a lot to do with that; they were much bigger than us. We had a hard time moving the ball. I hope we got a bad game out of the way.”

Now, Coronado turns its focus to Liberty, a team the visiting Cougars lost a 14-13 heartbreaker to in September.

“Excited about the challenge. They’re a good football team,” Talich said. “We have our work cut out for us.”

Silverado finished 3-7.

Tristan Aird can be reached at 702-259-8829 or [email protected]. Follow Tristan on Twitter at twitter.com/tristanaird.