This Week in Benedictine Football History

Week 2

September 2, 1994

Benedictine 30, Sandusky 7

Sandusky – This 30-7 Bengals victory was significant in a number of ways from a historical perspective to Benedictine fans.

For the first time in nearly four decades, Augie Bossu was not on the sidelines as the Bengals field boss. He had stepped down in the spring of 1994 at the age of 77 as Ohio’s winningest football coach with 308-117-28 record.

Highlighting the debut of Al Hodakievic as the Benedictine head coach was a record-setting performance by 6-5 junior wide receiver Kevin Coffey and near record-breaking feat by senior quarterback Joel Jelinek.

Hodakievic ’72 became the first Benedictine alumnus to head the football program.

Coffey caught five passes from Jelinek for a single-game school record 258 yards. Three of those five passes were for touchdowns… all in the third quarter. Meanwhile, Jelinek was racking up the third best school single-game passing yardage with 295 on only six completions.

Benedictine took the early 6-0 lead as Jelinek scored on a one-yard run in the first quarter.

Sandusky took a 7-6 lead at halftime and held on until the Bengals big third quarter.

In the span of less than nine minutes, the Jelinek-to-Coffey passing show lifted the Bengals to victory.

Coffey’s first score came with 9:30 left in the third on a pass play into the end zone that bounced off the Sandusky defender’s shoulder pads and into the hands of the lanky receiver.

The second touchdown of the quarter came with 6:14 left when Coffey slipped behind the pass coverage and caught the long pass. Coffey stumbled briefly, regained his footing and outran the defense to score on a 73-yard pass play.

After recovering a fumble on their own 13, the Bengals wasted little time reaching the end zone again. Jelinek threw downfield and Coffey caught it and dashed into the end zone to complete an 87-yard pass play. That scoring play came with 1:14 left in the third.

Benedictine had gone from a 7-6 deficit to a 24-7 lead in less than one quarter.

The Bengals added a final touchdown late in the game when fullback Ogun Brewer went 70 yards.

Coffey’s yardage surpassed the old record set by Benedictine Hall of Famer Rick King ’82 of 235 yards (from quarterback Paul Hrisko ’82) in a 27-0 win over Youngstown Rayen.

Interestingly, the Bengals did not convert one extra point in the game.

Immediately after the game, one visiting scout suggested in the press box that someone should offer Coffey a scholarship right there on the field.

Coffey eventually did accept a football scholarship to the University of Virginia where he ranks 12^th all-time with 1,347 yards on 75 receptions for an average of 18.0 and scored 15 touchdowns.

He later signed as a free agent with the National Football League’s Carolina Panthers in 2000 but did not make the regular season roster.

In ’94, Benedictine finished the regular season with an 8-2 record and ran off two wins in the Division IV state playoffs over Youngstown Mooney (33-13) and Brookfield (26-6) before falling to Orrville 54-27.

Bossu came out of “retirement” to coach the Bengals freshmen football team for many more years until the mid-2000’s. His first freshman team in 1994 finished with an 8-0-1 record. As juniors, many of those players would help the Bengals win the 1996 Division III state title.

Wally Mieskoski ’71

Benedictine Football Historian