A big ol’ what if.

A nine-point deficit in the third quarter of the 2018 football opener, Chaska’s Nolan Hansen hauled down a reception in the back of the end zone. Another in the growing list of acrobatic plays for the Hawks senior.

The men in white and black stripes saw it differently. No touchdown.

Video replay after the game showed a foot down, possession of the ball, a miss.

Though the true storyline was five turnovers. Touchdown or not, too many mistakes were made to win a contest against a talented Coon Rapids team.

Chaska, which beat the Cardinals in overtime in the 2017 opener, were shutout in a 9-0 decision Aug. 30 on the road.

“Not the way we wanted to play offensively. You can’t turn the ball over five times and expect to win. We didn’t finish off drives. We didn’t play with any consistency, something we talked a lot about during camp,” Chaska coach Bryan Dahl said. “I thought we had way too many penalties. Can’t be successful when you’re making that many mistakes. We put ourselves into tough spots.”

Turnovers were costly in the second quarter for the Hawks. A scoreless game, Coon Rapids started a drive at the Chaska 6. While the defense held, three points were the result on a short field goal.

Less than four minutes later, off a special teams fumble recovery, Coon Rapids found the end zone for the only time, converting a short-field opportunity on a 13-yard touchdown reception.

Those nine points were all that was scored.

Chaska, held to 162 yards of total offense, had its best drive of the game in the third quarter, 60 yards gained all on the ground, to get into the red zone.

Bach’s over-the-shoulder throw to Hansen was hauled in on third down in the end zone. The back judge, unable to see possession with Hansen’s back to him, waited for the trailing side judge to rule. A conference of officials did not take place.

A field goal attempt sailed wide and Chaska remained two scores down.

The Hawks also turned the ball over in Coon Rapids territory twice, once on a long punt return.

Matthew Kuntz, making his first varsity start in the backfield, had 14 carries for 63 yards. Bach completed 11-of-24 passes for 79 yards and two interceptions.

Hansen caught five receptions for 45 yards with Colden Dodds totaling 30 yards on four catches. Bach also totaled 20 yards on 10 rushes.

Defensively, Stevenson Klotz was team leader with nine total tackles and a sack, while linebacker Jacob Theis was credited with seven tackles, a sack and a forced fumble.

“That side of the ball, I thought we were really good. We held them to minus-three rushing yards, 99 total yards. Hard to see stats like that and lose,” Dahl said. “We played hard on defense. Physically we got after them upfront. We got one turnover, a strip sack. Should have had another, just had to fall on the ball and not try to scoop it up. There’s still stuff we can do to get better.”

Chaska opens the home portion of the schedule at 7 p.m. Sept. 7 versus Bloomington Kennedy. The Eagles fell 34-7 to St. Louis Park in week one.

“We watched film Saturday. You learn from both wins and losses. You’d rather learn from winning. We have a mindset that we’re going to improve every week, win or lose. We sent the kids some notes from the tape. We’ll touch on the game a bit more and then turn our attention to Kennedy,” Dahl said.

“We have some things to emphasis this week. We have to clean some stuff up. As coaches, we have to do a better job of putting the kids in a position to execute,” he added.