It wasn’t the tough stuff — not the reads, stunts, blitzes or assignments — that held the Emporia State football team back against Truman on Saturday.
Instead, it was the easy efforts.
“The simplest of things,” ESU coach Dave Wiemers said, “beat us today.”
Costly fumbles and missed field goals came back to haunt ESU Saturday, as the Hornets watched an early lead float away in a 14-13 Homecoming loss to Truman.
The defeat was ESU’s third straight, dropping the team to 3-4 overall.
“We’re playing hard — that’s not the problem,” ESU receiver Sean Partridge said. “We just ain’t playing smart. We’re all making mistakes... mistakes at the wrong time.”
The most magnified mistake came on the Hornets’ final possession.
Trailing by one with 2:37 remaining, ESU took over at its own 32 with a chance to win it with a field goal.
Quarterback Ben Purkeypile — who had led ESU to three fourth-quarter comebacks in the last seven games — came off the bench after not playing on the previous four possessions.
He led the Hornets through all the difficult motions of the comeback.
On a second-and-10, he hit Ryan Hulings over the middle for a 28-yard gain to the Truman 40. Three plays later, he threaded a third-and-10 pass to Partridge, who was double-teamed in the middle of the field.
Partridge went into a half slide, cradling the ball in at the Truman 15.
“Once I caught that,” Partridge said, “I thought for sure we were going to win.”
It wouldn’t happen.
On the next play, freshman running back Justin Wieser received a handoff and fumbled behind the line of scrimmage.
After a battle for the loose ball, ESU left tackle Matt Ferris recovered it at the 18.
The Hornets gave away that new life on the next snap.
Purkeypile never received the ball cleanly on the exchange from center Luke Costello, and Truman’s Courtney Jordan fell on the fumble.
“The first fumble seemed like it would be a wake-up call. Then, it happened again,” Partridge said. “We just let that one slip through our fingers.”
Three kneeldowns later, Truman celebrated its first victory against ESU since 1998.
Meanwhile, the Hornets were left to suffer another heartbreaking defeat at home. ESU’s three home losses to Winona State, Pittsburg State and Truman have come by a combined six points. All were decided on the final possession of the game.
“This loss is not any different than all the rest of them. This one hurts,” ESU running back Seville Ko said. “We knew it was important, and we just didn’t do the right things to win this game.”
The Hornets had plenty more opportunities early on to change their fortunes.
After catching Truman off-guard with a successful onside kick in the second quarter, ESU drove to the Bulldog 19 before Wieser fumbled on his first carry of the game. Jesse Cooper recovered it for Truman.
Though the Hornets added a 45-yard field goal from Jeff Edwards later in the half, they entered halftime only up 13-7 after dominating first-half play.
At the break, ESU had outgained Truman 188-80, holding the ball for an astounding 20 minutes, 34 seconds in the 30-minute span.
“Finishing drives, finishing plays, not letting one man tackle you. We’ve just got to finish — finish everything we do,” Partridge said. “We were up at halftime, and we didn’t finish. We didn’t finish the game.”
The Hornets failed to score on any of their eight second-half possessions, unable to respond to Ryan Bonner’s 11-yard touchdown reception that helped give Truman a 14-13 advantage in the third quarter.
ESU’s Alex Otoo intercepted a pass late in the third, returning the ball all the way to the Truman 26.
After driving it to the 3, the Hornets came away empty, as Edwards pushed a 20-yard field goal for the lead wide left from the left hashmark.
The Hornet defense forced a three-and-out, and ESU took over again in great field position on the next drive at the Truman 35.
But the Hornets went just four yards in three plays, and Edwards’ 48-yard attempt once again sailed wide left with 11:04 to play.
ESU punted on its next possession, then had its final drive end with the crucial turnover.
“It’s been that story all year long, to be honest,” Ko said. “We play hard every week, and we have some good players here, but we just continue to shoot ourselves in the foot.”
The loss wasted a strong bounceback effort by the ESU defense.
After being torched for 49 points last week at Northwest Missouri, the unit held Truman to 14 points and 85 yards rushing.
Ko also impressed while filling in for his roommate and starting tailback El Ray Henry. The sophomore had 30 carries for 130 yards, compiling 59 rushing yards in the first quarter alone.
Henry sat because of a recurring back injury.
“I’ve been talking to him, trying to keep him up,” Ko said. “I just wanted to come in and pick up where he left off.”
The loss leaves ESU in a bind heading into the final four weeks of the season.
The team has now lost three in a row heading into arguably the toughest part of its schedule, which includes three straight road games against teams that have all been ranked at one point this year.
All of which made Saturday’s game that much more significant.
“We kind of took the attitude all week that this was a must-win situation,” Wiemers said, “and when you don’t, it doesn’t feel very good.”
All three of ESU’s previous losses were to ranked opponents.
But not Truman, which picked up its third MIAA victory after going winless in the conference last season.
“That’s the third time in three weeks we didn’t come out with a complete effort,” Partridge said. “We played hard versus Pitt, and we haven’t played like that since. It shouldn’t be that way.”
The Hornets will have to figure things out quickly, as they travel to face No. 17 Missouri Western in St. Joseph, Mo., next Saturday.
“We think we’ve got a good football team here, it’s just not going our way right now,” Wiemers said. “That’s hard to swallow.”
juan15 (anonymous) says...
It still all comes down to the coaching. The play calling is questionable. You have a RB who is moving the ball but you never give the ball to him in the endzone? Then the coach puts in a different RB twice and he fumbles. The coaches are playing 2 different quarterbacks and playing 2 different centers and therefore not allowing the offense time to jell. Once they get used to a certain rhythm or have the momentum the coach changes the players around and things fall apart. I feel sorry for the players - not the coaches.
October 16, 2006 at 2:39 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
lollerskate (anonymous) says...
You must know Mr. Ko personally since you seem to be quiet an outspoken supported of his.
The guy had 30 carries for 130 yards and you are complaining because he did not get a touchdown?!
October 17, 2006 at 2:20 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )