Hooked On A Feeling: Spartans Eager To Build On 1st Win
By Michael Ashford
Thursday, September 14, 2006
This is a feeling the Emporia High Spartan football team hasn’t had in a while.
After picking up their first win of the season last Friday by defeating Topeka High, 35-0, the Spartans have been practicing this week coming off a victory for the first time since the Spartans defeated Highland Park last year in the third game of the season.
“Everything is different,” said senior linebacker Dillon Cox. “Everybody is real excited and pumped up and ready to go and ready to practice. We just want to keep it and continue on.”
Indeed, the shutout victory over the Trojans put a bounce in the step of the Emporia High players and coaches.
The next step in the progression? Winning a home game, something the Spartans haven’t done in nearly three years.
The next chance to stop that nasty bit of history comes in the form of a Centennial League matchup with rival Washburn Rural at 7 p.m. Friday at Welch Stadium.
“You can’t have a home stadium and not win there,” senior center Jared Johnson said. “It’s part of football. You’ve got to win at home. You’ve got to be there for your crowd and keep them coming back.”
Washburn Rural will enter Friday night’s contest sporting an 0-2 record, having been outscored 92-21 in those two contests. But the losses could be deceiving when the opponents are taken into account.
Rural opened its season with a 47-7 shellacking at the hands of Seaman, and followed up that performance with a 45-14 loss to Manhattan. Seaman and Manhattan are expected to be two of the tougher teams in the Centennial League.
“Manhattan and Seaman are really good football teams,” coach Bill Lowe said. “Washburn Rural is real big and real physical. They improved a lot from Week One to Week Two, and they are a dangerous team.”
One cannot overlook, however, the fact that Manhattan pounded the Junior Blues for 400 yards rushing last Friday, while Emporia’s strength offensively is in the running game, having averaged 239 rushing yards per game this season.
“(Running back) Edd (Noonan) and I were talking about that the other day,” sophomore quarterback Taylor Euler said of the rushing yardage the Junior Blues allowed against Manhattan. “We were looking online, and our eyes got pretty big once we saw that. We’re hoping we can match that or get even bigger numbers than that.”
Johnson said, however, that the Spartans cannot simply expect to have the same kind of success as Manhattan had in the running game against Washburn Rural, and instead must find their own way to win.
“Against any given team on any given day, they are going to bring their best at you,” he said. “It might be totally different this week. They may change up their defensive line this week. You’ve just got to keep that in mind.”
On offense, the Junior Blues also will look to get their running game started behind the play of junior running back Zack Smith (133 yards and a touchdown against Manhattan) and an offensive line with plenty of size to spare. Eight offensive linemen on the Washburn Rural roster are listed at 235 pounds or more.
“They do have some big boys,” senior defensive end Eric Wells said. “We’re going to have to keep our heads on a swivel. If we all do our jobs and play our positions, then those big linemen shouldn’t be a problem.”
The good news for the Spartan defense is that it has been particularly stingy against the run, allowing just 95.5 yards per game on the ground.
Much of that can be attributed to the play of Cox, who leads the team in total tackles with 22 and is the only Spartan to have recorded double figure tackles in each of the first two games.
“He’s aggressive; he wants to be in on every play,” Lowe said. “That’s how a linebacker should be. He’s fast and can cover a lot of ground, and he seems to always get around the ball.”
As Emporia High heads into its rivalry matchup with Washburn Rural, it offers the Spartans another shot at tackling a bit of history. A win would qualify as the Spartans’ first winning streak since 2003.
“Another win would be such a big confidence boost,” Well said. “If we get two wins in a row, then we will know that we can do some good things. But we’ve got to go out and get that win before we start thinking about what’s afterwards.”