Photo by Carly Pearson
Emporia High's Mark Kolmer is tackled while running the ball upfield Friday night at Welch Stadium. The Spartans beat Manhattan High 21-10.
Mark Kolmer didn’t remember how he got into the end zone.
All he knew was that he was there — and it felt good.
Emporia picked up a 21-10 victory over Manhattan Friday night at Welch Stadium to jump back into the thick of the State playoff hunt, with the win perhaps iced by a rumbling touchdown run by Kolmer in the latter stages of the game.
With Emporia holding onto a three-point lead with less than six minutes left in the game, EHS had the ball at the Manhattan 11 after having just converted on a fourth-and-1 to keep a drive alive that started its own 20-yard line.
On the next play, Kolmer took a handoff from quarterback Taylor Euler and ran through the right side of the line. Kolmer cut back upfield and bounced off four would-be tacklers, spun and finally dove into the end zone for his second touchdown of the night, giving the Spartans all the breathing room they would need over the Indians.
“That’s one of those plays where you don’t even remember how you got in,” Kolmer said. “I was just glad to be there. I got in there, and I was like, ‘Thank you. This is big.’”
Photo by Carly Pearson
Emporia High's Cord Stanley sacks Manhattan High quarterback Colton Rohr Friday night at Welch Stadium. The Spartans beat the Indians 21-10.
The touchdown with the successful two-point conversion capped the scoring on the night, giving the Spartans (5-3, 1-1 District) a big District victory over the Indians (3-5, 0-2). Not only did it give Emporia new life with regards to making the State playoffs, but it also was the first victory over the Indians since a 7-0 win in Manhattan in 1999.
“Any time you can say you beat Manhattan, then you can start to get over that stigma of ‘Oh, it’s Manhattan,’” EHS coach Bill Lowe said. “I just couldn’t be more proud of the kids and their effort. They fought their guts out.”
From the start, both teams clearly wanted to establish the running game, and as such, Emporia finished with 30 rushes for 237 yards and Manhattan ran 33 times for 194 yards. But once Emporia got ahead by two scores after Kolmer’s late TD, Manhattan had to turn to its passing game, and did so with little success.
Both of Manhattan’s final two possessions ended after Indians quarterback Colton Rohr threw interceptions, the first by Brandon Childs with 3:44 remaining and the second by Euler — who was playing deep safety in Emporia’s prevent defense — with 19.6 seconds left.
Photo by Carly Pearson
Emporia High's Taylor Euler (7) yells and is congratulated by teammate Harrison Stone (86) after intercepting a pass Friday night at Welch Stadium. Emporia High beat Manhattan 21-10.
Childs’ interception slammed the door shut on any thought of a Manhattan comeback, as his pick at the EHS 30-yard line allowed Emporia to run off more than two minutes of game time and also made the Indians use the last of their timeouts.
“It’s always nice to have a lead, but that can give you a false sense of security sometimes,” Childs said. “But I felt a lot better after I got that interception.”
The Spartans played with a lead for almost the entire game, thanks in large part to a costly mistake by Manhattan on the game’s first play.
The Indians’ Jamie Jones fumbled the opening kickoff at the EHS 25, giving Emporia an early field position advantage.
The Spartans needed just four plays to hit paydirt, with senior running back Edd Noonan capping the drive with a 5-yard TD run to help put EHS ahead, 7-0.
Noonan, who finished with 132 yards to give him 1,095 for the season, said getting ahead early helped relax the Spartans.
“We wanted to run it right at them,” Noonan said. “That was a big factor in the game — getting the ball on the 25-yard line to start and then driving it in for the score. In a game like this, to go up early, their momentum goes down and our goes up. We got the ball right off the bat and got a big score.”
Manhattan tied the game at 7 with a 19-yard pass from Rohr to Tom Elliott, but the Spartans answered with a 13-play, 76-yard drive that lasted 5-minutes, 54 seconds and was cappd by a Kolmer touchdown around the right side. EHS missed the extra point, making it 13-7, which would last until halftime.
“The thing I told the kids at halftime was that we can’t be satisfied,” Lowe said. “We did play pretty well, but we made some mistakes and the kids knew we could play better.”
Manhattan inched closer on its opening drive of the second half when Brandon Klimek connected on a 25-yard field goal — his first of the season — to make it 13-10.
Emporia then went on its second long scoring drive of the game, this time marching 80 yards in 14 plays while running 7:30 off the clock.
Photo by Carly Pearson
Emporia High's Corey Bacon (4) blocks for teammate Edd Noonan (20) Friday night at Welch Stadium. Noonan had 29 carries for 132 yards, giving him 1,095 yards on the season, the second year in a row Noonan has rushed for more than 1,000 yards.
Perhaps the most crucial play of the drive came on fourth-and-1 from the Indians 17. Noonan took a handoff and ran straight ahead for 6 yards, setting up the Spartans on the MHS 11.
“I told myself, ‘I’m not going to go outside, I’m going to run straight at them and get something — anything,” Noonan said. “It came out better than I expected.”
On the next play, Kolmer took it in from 11 yards out, essentially sealing the victory for EHS and giving the Spartans a new ray of hope heading into next week’s District finale against unbeaten Junction City (8-0, 2-0), which beat Wichita Heights, 26-14, Friday night.
“That’s all you can ask for — just win and you’ve got a chance,” Lowe said. “They (Junction City) will be tough for sure ... but let’s line up and go play.”
Emporia 21, Manhattan 10
Friday at Emporia
Manhattan 0 7 3 0 — 10
Emporia 7 6 0 8 — 21
First Quarter
Emp — Edd Noonan 5 run (Blaze Witten kick)
Second Quarter
Man — Tom Elliott 19 pass from Colton Rohr (Brandon Klimek kick)
Emp — Mark Kolmer 17 run (kick failed)
Third Quarter
Man — Klimek 25 field goal
Fourth Quarter
Emp — Kolmer 11 run (Noonan run)
GAME STATISTICS
Man Emp
First downs 17 18
Rushes-yards 33-194 30-237
Comp-att-int 8-16-2 2-5-0
Passing yards 101 29
Total plays-yards 49-295 35-266
Fumbles-lost 3-1 1-0
Penalties-yards 6-50 3-25
Punts-avg 1-15.0 3.320
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — Man: Colton Rohr 15-127, Derek Campbell 15-53, Tom Elliott 3-14. Emporia: Edd Noonan 29-132, Taylor Euler 14-63, Mark Kolmer 6-40, Corey Bacon 1-2.
Passing — Man: Rohr 8-16-2 101. Emporia: Euler 2-5-0 29.
Passing — Man: Zach McFall 6-67, Elliott 1-19, Dakota Webber 1-15. Emporia: Harrison Stone 2-29.
Punting — Man: Bryan Volkel 1-15.0. Emporia: Brandon Childs 3-32.0.
Records — Manhattan (3-5, 0-2 District). Emporia (5-3, 1-1).
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