No. 4 Coronado shrugs off injuries, rolls past Basic — PHOTOS

Coronado’s football team already was without star quarterback Aiden Krause when Scott Holper, the team’s leader in receiving yards, went down with a dislocated elbow on the fourth play from scrimmage Saturday.

It turns out, the Cougars had plenty of star power remaining.

JJ Buchanan caught two touchdown passes and returned an interception for a score, and linebacker William Bittman made numerous plays in the backfield to key the defense as Coronado, No. 4 in the Review-Journal’s Class 5A rankings, rolled to a 49-10 road win over Basic on Saturday.

“It’s always good through the season to be able to see what you have in the kids that don’t play a whole lot,” Coronado coach Shawn Dupris said. “We’re very capable in a lot of positions of kids that haven’t been on the field very much, but they’re very capable. And we’ve got some guys that are younger and just need that game experience.

“The starters came out and took care of business and got these other guys in, and it’s a full team effort. And that’s exactly what we want to see.”

It helps when you have a two-way talent like Buchanan, who has committed to play at Utah. With Coronado (4-2, 2-1 5A Division I) leading 7-3 and facing third-and-21, Buchanan made a play that clearly pushed the momentum in the Cougars’ favor against the Wolves (1-6, 0-3).

Sophomore quarterback Jackson Humphries, who had completed only two passes all season entering Saturday’s game, fired a quick slant toward Buchanan. The Basic defender tried to jump the route, but Buchanan snatched the ball, turned upfield and sprinted 77 yards down the right sideline for a touchdown and a 14-3 lead.

Buchanan added a 39-yard interception return for a touchdown that made it 21-3 and hauled in a 33-yard scoring pass from Humphries for a 28-3 lead with 10:18 to go in the half.

He finished with three catches for 112 yards and also had a tackle for loss on defense.

“When you’ve got an athlete like that you’ve got to get him the ball. You’ve got to feed him,” Dupris said. “He makes good things happen when the ball gets in his hands. You’ve got guys like that you want to try to get them the ball and let them do their thing.”

While Buchanan was keying the offense, Bittman was shutting down the Wolves and firing up his defensive teammates. He finished with a sack, three tackles for loss and a fumble recovery.

“He came out on fire,” Dupris said. “I think he made like the first four or five tackles, and he was fired up. The defense has been playing awesome all year long. They put a lot of pressure on people and make them make quick decisions.”

Dupris said Krause, who has passed for 1,391 yards and 17 TDs, missed the game with a minor knee injury but will return. The coach added that he expects Holper to also return before the end of the season.

Now the focus is on sustaining some success down the stretch.

“I think it’s just stacking wins, mainly,” Buchanan said. “Stacking good practices every day, which turns into stacking wins. We have a big game at the end of the season, so we have to take this four- or five-game stretch we have head on and be ready for the playoffs.”

Humphries completed 12 of 21 passes for 263 yards and four TDs. Neville Roberts hauled in a 64-yard TD pass and had a 10-yard scoring run for the Cougars.

Silvian David had a sack and a tackle for loss for Basic.