WICHITA — Though the rains held off Friday night, Wichita Heights provided its own downpour in the third quarter to roll past Emporia, 35-14, in the opening game of District play.
Heights scored on its first three offensive possessions and returned a punt for a touchdown — all in the third quarter — to turn a 14-7 Emporia lead into a 21-point victory.
“They came out and smacked us in the second half,” EHS defensive lineman Craig Turner said. “They came out and tried to power it down at us. I guess we just let them.”
The score didn’t really come close to telling how dominant Heights was in the third quarter.
The Falcons, in scoring touchdowns on a 20-yard pass, a 15-yard run and 6-yard run, rolled up 220 yards of offense in the second half to Emporia’s 109, with 178 of Heights’ yards coming on its first three possessions of the third quarter in which the Falcons simply overpowered the Spartans with a dominant running game.
Of Heights’ first 20 offensive plays it ran to start the second half, 14 were runs.
“They did what I was worried they were going to do — they came out and ran it right at us,” EHS coach Bill Lowe said. “Anytime you can run right at somebody, you’ve got a great chance at winning the game. They came at us and beat us down.”
Meanwhile, Emporia’s offense, which managed to keep Wichita Heights (5-2, 1-0 District) somewhat off balance for most of the first half in taking a touchdown lead into the locker room, was almost nonexistent.
Emporia (4-3, 0-1) gained a combined 16 yards and one first down on its first three possessions in the second half and had to punt all three times, the last of which Heights’ Jeff Evans returned 55 yards for a touchdown that proved to be the final score of the game with less than two minutes left in the third quarter.
“We might have come out just a little bit overconfident and thought just because we won the first half that we’d be able to win the second half,” Spartans quarterback Taylor Euler said. “We didn’t handle it (the lead) the way winners do.
“They came out and they were ready to play. They stepped up and we didn’t.”
The ugly start to the third quarter quickly wiped away any and all memories of a first half that saw the Spartans hang with Heights and ultimately take a 14-7 lead into the break.
Thanks to two early turnovers by Heights — an interception by Josh Maguire and a fumble recovery by Sheldon Patton — Emporia struck first when Euler snuck over the goal line for a 1-yard TD run to cap a 11-play, 34-yard drive that made it 6-0 after the extra-point attempt was wide left.
“We came out in the first half fired up and ready to play and ready to hit them,” Turner said.
Heights quickly answered Emporia’s score with a 77-yard touchdown strike to Jeff Evans from Chris Boyd that helped put the Falcons ahead, 7-6.
Both teams traded punts for nearly the entire second quarter before Emporia mounted a 57-yard scoring drive just before halftime that put the Spartans ahead, 14-7.
Facing a first-and-goal at the 9, Euler tried to hit Harrison Stone in the corner of the end zone but was intercepted out of bounds by Heights’ Dorrian Roberts. Euler came back on second down and lobbed a pass to Brandon Childs over the defender for a 9-yard TD with just 11 seconds left before halftime.
Edd Noonan scampered in for the two-point conversion to put EHS up by a touchdown.
“We made some big plays in the first half,” Lowe said. “That kept them off balance a little bit.”
Perhaps the most disappointing stat for the Spartans was the lack of a running game. Emporia gained just 109 yards on the ground on 40 rushes, while Noonan, who needed 82 yards to top 1,000 for the season, gained just 45.
“We never could run the ball, and that’s what I was worried about,” Lowe said. “We were just not capable of running the ball.”
Emporia will face Manhattan next Friday at Welch Stadium in the second game of District play.
Wichita Heights 35, Emporia 14
Friday at Wichita
Emporia 6 8 0 0 — 14
Wichita Heights 7 0 28 0 — 35
First Quarter
Emp — Taylor Euler 1 run (kick failed)
WH — Jeff Evans 77 pass from Chris Boyd (Sean Rothwell kick)
Second Quarter
Emp — Brandon Childs 9 pass from Euler (Edd Noonan run)
Third Quarter
WH — Evans 20 pass from Boyd (Rothwell kick)
WH — Cordell Reed 15 run (Rothwell kick)
WH — Reed 6 run (Rothwell kick)
WH — Evans 45 punt return (Rothwell kick)
GAME STATISTICS
Emporia WH
First downs 13 16
Rushes-yards 40-109 32-180
Comp-att-int 11-24-2 8-15-1
Passing yards 110 185
Total plays-yards 64-219 47-365
Fumbles-lost 2-1 4-1
Penalties-yards 6-56 7-49
Punts-avg 7-34.3 3-23.3
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — Emporia: Taylor Euler 19-53, Edd Noonan 16-45, Corey Bacon 1-6, Mark Kolmer 4-5. WH: Cordell Reed 17-118, Tracy Carney 9-46, Dominique Hill 4-25, Anthony Ruffin 1-1, Chris Boyd 1-(-10).
Passing — Emporia: Euler 10-23-2 102, Bacon 1-1-0 8. WH: Boyd 7-14-1 164, Jeff Evans 1-1-0 21.
Receiving — Emporia: Harrison Stone 5-34, Bacon 1-29, Noonan 3-27, Brandon Childs 1-9, Euler 1-8, Kolmer 1-3. WH: Evans 4-107, Hill 2-47, Reed 1-21, Chase Kinchion 1-10.
Punting — Emporia: Childs 7-34.3. WH: Tyler Marlier 3-23.3.
Records — Emporia (4-3, 0-1 District), WH (5-2, 1-0).