COQUILLE -- On the night when Coquille's 1970 state champion team was honored, Illinois Valley made sure that would remain the only unbeaten Red Devils squad in modern history.

The Cougars used a big burst in the third quarter to build a lead and beat the host Red Devils 27-12 in the season opener on Friday.

After winning all their nonleague games a year ago, the Red Devils lost their first one this season, brought down by a few big plays by the Illinois Valley offense and a few costly mistakes in the third quarter.

For Illinois Valley, the victory was sweet after not winning a game in 2004.

"It's a great start for us," said Zach Pagnotta, who scored the Cougars' first three touchdowns. "We're real excited as a team."

Coquille, meanwhile, will try to pick up the pieces heading into next Saturday's Cranberry Bowl matchup at Bandon.

"We've got to learn from it," said Coquille senior Joey Lewis, who had an outstanding game in the loss. "We've got to turn it into a positive note and figure out what we need to work on and get ready for next week."

Both teams started slowly Friday, failing to get a first down in the opening quarter.

Illinois Valley caughed up the ball on two of its early possessions. Coquille's Robert Nickerson recovering the first fumble, but the Red Devils couldn't take advantage of good field position.

After the teams traded a pair of punts, the Cougars fumbled again and Michael Fleek recovered for the Red Devils.

Coquille made Illinois Valley pay for the mistake when Lewis took an option pitch from quarterback Jake Cochran and scored from three yards out on the third play of the second quarter.

The Cougars finally got their initial first down on the next possession, but fumbled the ball back to Coquille, with Angel Savala making the recovery. After the Red Devils fumbled the ball back to Illinois Valley, Coquille forced a third straight turnover when Shaun Bready intercepted a pass.

But with less than two minutes left in the first half, Pagnotta intercepted a pass by Cochran. The Cougars scored on the final play of the half when Pagnotta caught a pass from Tyler Pope between two Coquille defenders. Pope's kick gave the visitors a 7-6 lead at the break.

The score was a momentum buster for the Red Devils.

"I thought the kids' heads went down a little bit," Coquille coach John Breuer said of the touchdown's impact.

After halftime, the Red Devils started making miscues, including six fumbles (two recovered by the Cougars) and five penalties (after none in the first half).

The first turnover was costly, coming on a bad option pitch deep in Coquille territory.

Two plays after the fumble, Pagnotta scored untouched on a 9-yard counter run, putting the Cougars up 14-6.

Coquille lost another fumble, but forced an Illinois Valley punt. But the Red Devils sputtered on offense again and Ian Moore returned the ensuing Coquille punt 33 yards to set up Pagnotta's 5-yard scoring run up the middle on the last play from scrimmage in the third quarter.

The Red Devils responded with their best drive of the night.

Robert Nickerson sprinted around the left side for 17 yards on a reverse and Savala followed with an 11-yard run. Lewis had a 17-yard run and Cochran connected with Bready for 18 yards to the Illinois Valley 7-yard line on a fourth-and-18 play. The Cougars stiffened, forcing another fourth down, but Cochran found Erik Pflaum in the corner of the end zone for a score with 5:35 to go in the game.

The Cougars iced the win, though, when Moore broke loose for a 38-yard scoring run on a fourth-down play with 3:31 to go.

Pagnotta said his team succeeded because it mixed the run and pass in its double-wing attack after running the ball nearly every play last year.

"We just spread the ball out," he said.

Moore finished with 97 rushing yards on 14 attempts to lead the team, though the Cougars gained just 188 yards of total offense.

That total was fine for Breuer, who was pleased with a lot of what he saw on defense.

"There's really three big plays that we had missed assignments that they scored on," he said.

Coquille finished with 196 yards of total offense, including 100 rushing yards for Lewis, who also had several tackles for loss from his defensive end position.

Breuer also was pleased with the play of both Bready and Pflaum, who did not play football last year.

"I saw some real good things tonight," he said. "We've got some good skill kids that we can build a team around."

But there were bad things, too.

Cochran rarely had time to throw the ball against the Cougars' big defensive front, plus Coquille didn't appear to be in as good shape as this point last season.

"I thought we could be in better condition," Breuer said. "That's my fault."

But the Coquille coach, known for his great motivation during a successful tenure as wrestling coach, said the key will be for Coquille to handle the adversity of the loss the right way, by making it into a positive.

"I don't like losing," he said. "I think the kids have that same feeling, too. Losing just makes you want to work harder."

The highlight of the night might have been halftime, when several members of the 1970 champion squad were introduced.

The biggest cheers from the crowd came for Andy Klemm, who coached that team and has since retired.

Joining Klemm on Friday were assistant coaches Bob Schultz and Jerry Luoto, as well as players Steven Clauson, Jim Cochran, Howard Cooke, Duane Dodge, Rich Courtright, Mike Johnson, Lonnie Gilbert, Keith Lewis, Steven Wright and Wes Northup; cheerleaders Cindy (Walden) Swindall, Cheri (Walden) Atkinson and Cathi (Courtright) Morris; band director Wes Hedeen; and stadium announcer Loran Wiese, who still is the voice on game nights.

The reunion led to a lot of smiles, hugs and photos from the crowd.

Notes: The game was considered an endowment game, with half the proceeds going to the new OSAA Foundation and half to Coquille. It is an exhibition game for Illinois Valley, which still has nine games on the schedule. The game is considered a regular-season contest for Coquille, which will have a bye during the regular season.