Going Out Winners
Behind powerful running game, Spartans beat Bluejays to give 18 seniors final victory
By Michael Ashford
Saturday, October 28, 2006
With the stands at Welch Stadium nearly empty — save for a few straggling fans and parents already talking about next season — the Emporia High senior football players gathered on the Jones Field turf and basked in the glory of their final game as Spartans.
Robert Keisler and Eric Wells, among others, trotted out to midfield to lie on the ground and stare into the night sky.
Jared Johnson brought out a football and began tossing it around with his teammates.
Eventually, all the seniors huddled around Keisler as he tried a 40-yard field goal — and missed it just wide right. Not that it mattered.
“I’m sad; I’m happy. I want to cry and smile too,” Dillon Cox said. “I don’t really know what to do.”
Few thoughts were on the football game that ended less than 15 minutes earlier, which just happened to be a 24-12 Emporia victory over Junction City.
Instead, all thoughts were on the seniors.
“Look at them,” EHS coach Bill Lowe said with a smile. “They just don’t want to leave.”
The Spartans had quite a few reasons to smile Friday night, not the least of which being that with the win over the Bluejays, Emporia High (6-3 overall, 1-2 district) finished with six wins in a season for the first time since 1999.
Not a bad way to end a career.
“I couldn’t imagine what we’d be doing right now if we would have lost,” Keisler said. “Everybody would be in tears — but this feels great. To go out with a win just feels great.”
The Spartans did it in their trademark style too.
Emporia High totaled 284 yards on offense, and all of those yards came on the ground by way of the running game.
Not only that, junior running back Edd Noonan rushed for 170 yards, giving him 1,001 yards on the season.
After the game, it was unclear if Noonan had reached the 1,000-yard mark or not, but even after he was told that it appeared he had come up short, Noonan was just excited to have gotten the win for the class above him.
“I would’ve been happy if I would have got (1,000 yards), but I’m just happy that we got the win and could send the seniors out with a win and a great season,” he said. “I was looking forward to (1,000 yards), but I’m glad we got this game and had a 6-3 record.”
Noonan’s performance was bolstered by the addition of Cox and senior James Sparks at the fullback spots, as the two consistently opened gaping holes for Noonan and to run through.
Cox even had seven carries for 19 yards and a touchdown.
“That was a lot of fun,” Cox said. “Coach told me on Monday that I was going to be playing some fullback, and I was like, ‘Awesome. Sounds good.’ I didn’t expect to get that many carries, but I was fine with it; I wasn’t going to complain about it.”
Things started out dicey for Emporia High, as Junction City took its first possession and drove 64 yards in eight plays to score a touchdown on a 7-yard run by Corey Delaney. The two-point conversion failed, but the Bluejays had dealt a blow to the Spartan defense.
The drive served as a wake-up call for EHS, Cox said.
“I didn’t know what was going on. We had to step it up,” he said. “I was just thinking, ‘We can’t let that happen again.’ We just had to not let that happen again.”
The Spartans responded with a 15-play, 74-yard drive that was capped by a 3-yard TD run from Cox to go up, 7-6, and EHS would never lose the lead.
“Last game of my senior year, to get a touchdown, I’m happy about that,” Cox said.
After the EHS defense held Junction City to a three-and-out, the Spartans scored again, this time on a 3-yard run by Noonan to go up, 14-6.
On the two first-half touchdown drives, Noonan rushed for 39 and 36 yards, respectively, to kick-start his run to break the 1,000-yard mark.
“We got on offense and drove the ball,” Noonan said. “Dillon and James, (the coaches) put them back there to block for me this game, and they did a good job. Our line stepped up and blocked great.”
Emporia High scored once more in the first half when Keisler knocked through a 36-yard field goal as time expired to make it 17-6.
“I’m happy for Robert making the field goal,” Lowe said. “That was big.”
Junction City did not go away though, as the Bluejays pulled to within five points in the third quarter when Felix Snipes scored from eight-yards out to make it 17-12 after Junction City’s two-point attempt again failed.
But the Spartans put down any thoughts of a Bluejay rally two possessions later when quarterback Taylor Euler ran in from 22 yards out to make it 24-12 with 7:08 left in the game.
The Bluejays never truly threatened again, and the Spartans were left to celebrate a season-ending victory — one that sent 18 Spartan seniors out as winners.
“It feels great for the seniors. I’m just so happy for that group of kids,” Lowe said. “They deserve it so much, and I wanted it for them so bad. They made some big plays. A lot of them made some big plays tonight. They fought hard, and they’ve done that all season. They could have easily given up, but they didn’t, and they never have.
“They deserve that 6-3 record. I’m really proud of them. Because of them, the other kids have something that they’ve got to live up to and try to improve on.”