It was clear skies on Friday night for both the city of Colorado Springs and Coronado football.

The Cougars, who endured two winless seasons before posting three victories last year, looked ready to put the stormy times behind them.

Senior quarterback Thomas Buckmiller led Coronado’s potent aerial attack, throwing for four touchdowns in a 41-3 rout of host Palmer at Garry Berry Stadium.

Last year, the Cougars opened the season with a 25-20 win over the Terrors, this year’s season opener saw a much more dominant performance from Coronado.

After being denied on their opening possession in the first quarter, Coronado (1-0) and Buckmiller stepped up their game. The senior quarterback connected with senior wideout Lyrik Smith on a long completion and then passed to another senior receiver in Collin Wolf for the six-yard score.

Once Buckmiller connected with his receivers on that drive, he caught fire. The Terrors had no answers for the ability of the slew of Coronado’s senior pass catchers. Midway through the second quarter, Buckmiller linked up with Smith on two long passes, the second went for more than 40 yards and a score.

Seemingly everywhere the Terrors looked, there was a senior receiver catching a pass. Just before the half, Buckmiller threw a short touchdown to senior Oliver Bushman for the score and connected again with Smith for a fourth passing touchdown open the Cougars’ opening drive of the second half.

“We preach that any one of you five guys can get the ball on any play. So run your route hard, play for your teammates and understand that everybody hunts, everybody eats,” Coronado coach Robert Leboeuf said.

The Cougars running backs were on the prowl as well as both senior Jayson Beaudin and junior Christian Pabon grinded out a pair of short runs for touchdowns.

Host Palmer avoided the shutout on a fourth-quarter field goal from Josh Paz.

The hunger the Cougars displayed in their opener stems from last season, Leboeuf said. Despite falling in lopsided contests to Pueblo East and Pueblo Central to finish the season, the Coronado coach said those two weeks were the best practices his team had all year.

“Our kids were upset that the season was over. They wanted to keep going and it said a lot about their character and about their work ethic and what they wanted to do and what they wanted to accomplish this year,” he said.

There’s perhaps no better testament to the changing culture in any locker room than getting others to buy in. Both Leboeuf and Smith said the team was able to bring back some players who had left the programs earlier in their high school careers.

Smith said that the change on the field is due to the way the team practices and the intensity with which they take the field.

“All the work over the summer, we were there every day, getting ready, getting reps,” Smith said. “I’m so proud of this team. There were certain people that came back from years prior. It’s just a better team than what we had last year honestly.”