Kinzer scores three times to lead Colome past Avon 22-16

COLOME — Terrance Kinzer scored all three touchdowns in Colome’s 22-16 9B quarterfinal victory against Avon Monday in Colome.

The Cowboys advance to the semifinal round of the playoffs for the first time since 2007, a year when Colome went on the win the state title. The semifinal round is Saturday for all high school classes.

“Hopefully, this just carries on our tradition here,” Colome head coach Kevin Keiser said, referring to what was started back in the 2007 season. “When young kids see this, that’s when you build a tradition in a town like this. This is going to carry Colome football a long way, I hope.”

Pirates head coach Tom Culver said, despite the loss, his team left everything it had on the field.

“It was a great effort and we knew these guys were going to be tough to beat,” said Culver, whose team went 6-4 on the season. “We said we had to compete, because if we get beat it might hurt a bit, but at least tomorrow you can look back and say, ‘I left it all out there.’ That’s all you can ask.”

Kinzer put the Cowboys (9-1) on the board first with a 6-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, but Avon answered early in the second as Logan Mudder ran in from one yard out.

The Pirates made the conversion to go ahead 8-6, which remained the score throughout the first half.

“I thought they really matched up with us size-wise,” Keiser said. “Their speed surprised me a little bit in the first quarter, but we stayed patient.”

The evenness of the matchup showed as the teams’ total offensive yards were within just two yards of one another. Avon outgained Colome 309-307.

Kinzer said his team came out with a mission in the third quarter after a pep talk from the head coach.

“(Keiser) said that we had to have confidence because we are a second-half team,” said Kinzer, who racked up 243 of Colome’s 290 rushing yards. “We were all getting tired, but we stayed mentally tough and pulled through.”

With 5:20 left to play in the third quarter, Kinzer scored his second touchdown and gave Colome its second lead of the game, going ahead 14-8.

Kinzer, who also recorded 18 tackles, lengthened the Cowboy lead to 22-8 as he took off down the field on an 85-yard touchdown run with just under six minutes left.

Keiser said Kinzer’s ability to make plays has been a big part of the Cowboys’ successful season.

“We opened the game a little when Kinzer broke that last one,” he said. “He’s another coach on the field for us, and he’s so key to have in our backfield on defense.”

Avon gave one last push with a 6-yard touchdown run by Mudder, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the 16-point deficit.

Keiser said his team stayed persistent and it paid off.

“I thought we did a good job of just staying to what we’ve been doing all year,” Keiser said. “We’ve had trouble like this before and we seem to get through it in the second half. I thought we stayed physical and to our plan.”

Avon’s Devin Tolsma led offensively with 18 carries and 129 yards and Brandon Kocmich had 18 carries for 100 yards. Tolsma also recorded nine tackles in the loss.

First Quarter

C: Terrance Kinzer 6 run (conversion failed)

Second Quarter

A: Logan Mudder 1 run (Brandon Kocmich run)

Third Quarter

C: Kinzer 37 run (Kinzer run)

Fourth Quarter

C: Kinzer 85 run (Andrew Odden run)

A: Mudder 6 run (Devin Tolsma run)

Tags: sports, colome, football, updates, avon