The Emporia Gazette

May 27, 2012

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When the Emporia High football team meets Manhattan this Friday for the second game of district play, the Spartans might think they are looking in a mirror when the Indians take the field.

Offensively, Manhattan, behind the play of senior quarterback Cole Bachamp and senior running back Brandon Hall, loves to run the football and use up large chunks of time on lengthy drives, while on defense, the Indians (4-3 overall, 1-0 districts) are as big and physical as they come.

In much the same way, the Spartans (5-2, 0-1) have made a living this year with their running game led by quarterback Taylor Euler and the trio of Edd Noonan, Mark Kolmer and Clint Drake at running back while fielding a stingy, senior-laden defense that has a knack for making big plays.

There might be one problem, however.

“They’re probably bigger and stronger than we are,” EHS coach Bill Lowe said.

But don’t think Lowe is chalking up a loss this Friday. It’s actually quite the contrary.

“I’m not counting our kids out,” Lowe said. “I’m pretty excited about our attitude this week. We’ve had a good week of practice. I think we’re as prepared as we can be.”

Regardless, the Spartans will have their work cut out for them when they meet up with the Indians at 7 p.m. Friday at Bishop Stadium in Manhattan.

“They’re a really physical team,” senior defensive end Dack Barnett said. “We’re going to have to play well. They’re big, fast, physical and are going to try to run it right at us, but we can stop them.”

The Spartans will have to at least slow the Manhattan ground game if they hope to have a chance at rebounding from last week’s 21-20 loss at home to Wichita Heights — a loss that dropped Emporia High to 0-1 in district play.

Despite the close loss last week, offensive lineman Troy Pierce said the Spartans have pushed that game out of their thoughts and have moved on to this week.

“We’ve got confidence. We’re going to come out with fire and come ready to play,” Pierce said. “We just need to come out and play hard. We have to run the ball and be physical.”

Manhattan’s quarterback, Bachamp, will probably remind Spartan fans of Euler. The shifty quarterback can make plenty of plays with his feet, but when he needs to, he can air it out to a stable set of receivers, though Euler is the better passer.

But it might be Hall that presents the biggest threat to Emporia High’s chances.

Hall’s best game of the year came against Topeka West on Oct. 7, when he rushed 34 times for 305 yards and all five of Manhattan’s scores — including TD runs of 52 and 53 yards — in a 32-0 Manhattan victory.

Those stats are not lost on the Emporia High defenders, who enter Friday’s game well aware of their primary targets.

“We’re going to have to stop their running back and their quarterback,” Barnett said. “If we can get them going east and west, I think we’ll be all right.”

Meanwhile, the Spartan offense believes it has figured out the best way to slow Bachamp and Hall — keep them off the field.

“We want to go on long, long drives,” Euler said. “They have a high-powered offense with a good quarterback and running back. If we keep the ball out of their hands, we’ll be in good shape, because our defense will do their job.”

If nothing else, the Spartans know that there is little — if any — room for error this week.

A loss to Manhattan would drop the Spartans to 0-2 in district play and all but knock the Spartans out of the hunt for a state playoff berth.

With his team’s back against the proverbial wall, Lowe believes the Spartans will respond positively to the challenge that awaits them.

“I think they (the players) know that we’re kind of in a do-or-die situation and that it’s going to take our best effort to win,” Lowe said. “We’ve been building towards this and its been getting better each week. The biggest thing is going to be tackling — we’ve got to gang tackle and pursue. If we do that, we’ll have a chance.”