Coe senior Michael Rozum (24) celebrates after his teammate Brendan Leiran (2) scores a touchdown in the second half of their game Saturday, Sept. 25, 2010 against Central College. (Becky Malewitz/The Gazette)

CEDAR RAPIDS — From the outhouse to the penthouse, from goat to hero. Dillon Mellick went from perhaps blowing Coe College’s biggest football victory to preserving it.

In just seconds.

“He was going to get his fanny chewed pretty good, then he does that,” laughed Coe football coach Steve Staker after his team’s 37-28 win over Central before almost 5,000 people on a rainy Saturday afternoon at Clark Field. “I told him ‘OK, that’s break even.’”

Maybe a little more than break even, Coach. Of all the yards (999) and points these teams put up in their exquisite top-10 battle, it was Mellick’s alert, if not desperate, defensive play that made the difference.

From behind, the defensive back punched the ball away from Mike Furlong as the Central receiver was sprinting to the end zone for a go-ahead touchdown early in the fourth quarter. It had to be from behind because Mellick was beaten badly on a sideline bomb.

“I got burned on it,” the senior from Waukon said. “But I could see he was holding the ball wide, so I just went for it all and got it.”

The ball bounced from about the 5-yard-line through the end zone. Make that a touchback, not a touchdown.

“That’s definitely the play of the game,” Coe quarterback Brad Boyle said. “That’s how we play. Never give up. Even if he’s running to the end zone, never give it up.”

“That’s a play we needed to make, for sure,” said Central Coach Jeff McMartin. “I hate to blame any one player. We lost this football game as a team.”

And Coe won it as a team. The Kohawks (4-0) will move up from their No. 9 spot in the d3football.com rankings after rallying from an eight-point halftime hole against NCAA Division IIIs seventh-ranked team.

Coe outscored Central 17-0 in the second half thanks to some timely defensive plays — including Mellick’s and a pair of fourth-quarter interceptions — and a whole lot of offense. Coe’s no-huddle, shotgun spread attack produced 533 yards, 307 on the ground.

Boyle won quite the quarterback battle with Central’s Nate Snead, accounting for 330 rushing and passing yards and five touchdowns. His 5-yard TD rush off the left side with 5:55 to go put the Kohawks up by what turned out to be the final margin.

Snead finished with 301 all-purpose yards and four scores.

“Offensively, we didn’t really change much throughout the game because we thought we were being successful,” Boyle said. “The defense huddled up in the corner (of the locker room) at the half, and Coach (defensive coordinator Larry) Atwater, I don’t know what he told them. But zero points in the second half against that offense that put up 28 in the first half was amazing.”

“We just knew we had to help out our offense,” Mellick said. “Our offense was playing really well, but our defense wasn’t. We just knew we had to step up, make an attitude change, go out there and get after them.”

Central (3-1) had its 13-game regular-season win streak snapped. Both teams made the D-III playoff field last season, and it wouldnt be one bit surprising to see that happen again.

“We’ve got a lot of games to go, and we’ve got to take them one at a time and get better each week,” Staker said. “Then we’ll see what happens at the end of the road. But this is a huge step in the right direction, that’s for sure.”

Here’s a link to the game boxscore:

http://www.coeathletics.com/stats/2010-11/football/4-cen.htm

Here are short video interviews with Mellick and Staker: