Dublin Coffman gets up early, holds on late for win over Hilliard Davidson

Hilliard, OH – Quinn Hart is listed at 6-foot-1 and 180 pounds on Dublin Coffman’s team roster.

Coffman coach Geron Stokes, though, suggested that those numbers may have been inflated.

“He ain’t 180,” Stokes said with a chuckle.

Regardless of his physical size, Stokes said it would be foolish to question Hart’s play-making abilities or leadership skills, especially after the senior quarterback accounted for 220 yards of offense and three touchdowns to lead the Shamrocks to a 21-20 victory at Hilliard Davidson on Friday.

“Quinn’s not the biggest or the smallest quarterback I’ve ever coached, but he may be the most competitive,” said Stokes, whose squad improved to 6-2 overall and 2-1 in the Ohio Capital Conference-Central Division. “He’s a competitor who makes plays by getting the ball to the right people and by fighting for extra yards when he’s got the ball in his hands. He’s also got a knack of making people miss in his own (unique) way.”

Indeed, Hart showed off a plethora of skills while completing 9-of-10 passes for 123 yards and two touchdowns in the first two quarters to help Coffman jump out to a 21-0 halftime advantage.

In total, while running around and sometimes through the arms of defenders, Hart finished with 98 rushing yards and a touchdown on 19 carries and was 10-of-11 passing for 122 yards.

“The roster’s accurate, I am 180 pounds of pure muscle,” Hart joked, drawing laughter from teammates who were eavesdropping as they walked past him after the game. “I love that I am thought of as being a dual threat quarterback. Getting the chance to help my team by both running and passing the ball is inspiring to me.”

On the first play of the second quarter, Hart heaved a pass deep downfield to wide receiver Cameron Hairston, who hauled in the ball in stride for a 43-yard touchdown reception.

“We put that play into practice to bring their safety down, and Cam Hairston ran a great route,” Hart said. “I had so much time to throw because of my offensive line.”

Running behind left tackle Kris Manu, left guard Leo Caviness, center Logan Stuck, right guard Josh Ballay and right tackle Curtis McCollum, Hart was able to make an equally big impact with his legs.

On just the second play of Coffman’s third possession, Hart fought off two tacklers at the line of scrimmage and then raced 47 yards for another score to make it 14-0 with 8:26 remaining in the half.

“That was a designed run, and our entire line did an incredible job,” Hart said. “(Tight end) Eli Losey had a great block on their linebacker, and Kris Manu did an incredible job of blocking downfield.”

Hart then engineered a 14-play, 60-yard touchdown drive that consumed 5:55 and was capped by him connected with Losey on a 5-yard scoring strike.

Davidson defensive back Cameron Metzger reached up with his left hand and tipped the ball as it passed over his head, but Losey adjusted his body and managed to keep his feet inbounds along the left side of the end zone as he caught the deflected pass with just 18.7 seconds left before halftime.

“That was just Eli making an incredible play,” Hart said. “We practice catching 50/50 balls all the time, and Eli always does a great job of tracking the ball and catching it in those situations.”

Coffman outgained Davidson 235-38 in total offensive yardage in the first half, before both teams made significant adjustments to their offensive schemes.

The Shamrocks became much more conservative, offensively, as they passed the ball only once for negative-one yard, and ran the ball 15 times for only 63 yards over the last two quarters.

Daven White carried the load for Coffman in the second half, racking up 53 of his 82 yards after halftime, which he gained on a total of 18 attempts.

“We scored on three straight drives, and then we didn’t do anything in the second half,” Stokes said. “I was cowardly in that I should have allowed Quinn to throw in the second half. We got up by three scores, and then we took our foot off the gas, thinking the race was over. But it didn’t turn out that way.”

Meanwhile, the Wildcats switched to a hurry-up, pass-heavy offense, which was much more effective, racking up 249 passing yards and 50 rushing yards in the second half alone.

“We’ve had this style of offense in our back pocket for a couple of years, but we haven’t been in a situation where we’ve had to use it,” said Davidson coach Jeremey Scally, whose squad lost its fourth consecutive game to drop to 4-4 overall and 0-3 in the OCC-Central. “We decided to rip off the band-aid and see what would happen, and we started moving the ball.”

Davidson quarterback Johnny DiBlasio thrived in the second half, completing 11-of-13 passes for 143 yards and three touchdowns in the fourth quarter alone, while the Wildcats mounted a furious comeback.

Senior wide receiver Mikey Clark finished with seven catches for 84 yards, including three touchdown receptions.

Clark made a leaping 13-yard scoring catch on a bullet of a pass from DiBlasio to put Davidson on the scoreboard with 9:48 remaining.

On Davidson’s next possession, DiBlasio lofted a rainbow pass 31 yards downfield into Clark’s arms as he crossed the goal line to make it 21-14 with 6:03 left.

And DiBlasio zipped a fastball of a pass into Clark’s chest from four yards out with 1:16 on the clock to pull the Wildcats within 21-20.

“Give our kids credit because they were resilient and they never quit,” Scally said. “We were playing tentative in the first half, but at some point, you have to pick faith over fear, and we had fun and played free in the second half.”

Scally opted to go for a two-point conversion, but running back James Tarantine was unable to hold onto the football after initially making a catch while falling to his knees along the right sideline of the end zone.

“I had no positive thoughts of us getting a stop there, because we were playing six backups on defense, and we were such a mess, defensively, in the second half,” Stokes said. “Their quarterback put the ball where it needed to go, but the ball bounced our way, and that happens sometimes when you continue to compete the way our kids did.”

DiBlasio finished 19-of-29 passing for 234 yards and three touchdowns, and rushed for 49 yards on 12 carries.

“Defensively, we made some mistakes here and there, but we played well overall,” said Manu, who also starts as a defensive lineman and has been offered a total of 18 college football scholarships. “We played really well as a team in the first half, and then it was a relief that we held on to win.

“Our motto is relentless, and we’re trying to learn to play that way for an entire game.”