Emporia High football coach Bill Lowe knows exactly what the second-guessers will say.
Twenty minutes after his team’s 14-13 loss to Shawnee Heights Friday night at Welch Stadium, Lowe could already hear the couch-potato coaches and the Saturday-morning quarterbacks questioning his decision to send a freshman kicker out onto the field to attempt a potential game-tying extra point with less than two minutes remaining in the game.
Lowe doesn’t want to hear any of it.
“I know everybody will say, ‘Why didn’t you go for two and try to win it?’” Lowe said. “I’d do it (kick) again if I had to. I was confident we were going to tie that game up and win it in overtime.”
“Obviously, had I known Blaze (Witten) wasn’t going to make that kick, I would have gone for two. But I didn’t know he was going to miss, and I had faith in him because he had been accurate for us all year.”
Emporia senior running back Edd Noonan scored on a 48-yard touchdown run with 1 minute, 30 seconds left to pull the Spartans to within one point of Shawnee Heights at 14-13 with the extra point attempt still to come.
Witten and Emporia’s field goal unit trotted out onto the field for the PAT, but there was a problem. Emporia only had 10 men on the field, forcing the Spartans to use their second timeout of the game.
“That was just a mental thing,” Lowe said. “Somebody just didn’t get on the field.”
Lowe said he thought about switching the call and going for two after having to use the timeout, but he turned back those thoughts and put his faith in Witten’s right leg, as the freshman had been 12-for-14 on point-after attempts up to that point.
From his place on the sideline, Noonan watched as Witten’s kick sailed high into the air, and then saw the Shawnee Heights players celebrate as the referees signaled that the kick was no good.
“You feel bad for him,” said Noonan, who finished the game with 163 yards and two touchdowns on 29 carries.
Noonan, however, refused to place the blame on Witten, saying the entire team played poorly, especially in the first half when EHS managed just 98 yards of offense to Heights’ 182.
“We were on our heels and we weren’t playing to our potential,” Noonan said. “We have to play a full game instead of half of a game if we want to win.
“It’s not just his (Witten’s) fault. We all made mistakes and we didn’t take advantage of our opportunities to score, especially early in the game.”
That, and the Spartans (3-2, 3-1 Centennial League) had no answer for Shawnee Heights running back Austin Flohrschutz.
For the third time this season, Flohrschutz set Shawnee Heights’ single-game rushing record, gaining 247 yards on just 20 carries while scoring both of the Thunderbirds’ touchdowns.
Noonan watched as Flohrschutz scorched the EHS defense all night, ripping off runs of 14, 19, 27, 63 and 68 yards.
“He’s a good back,” Noonan said. “He got some holes opened up for him and he runs hard and he made some plays.”
Heights (4-1, 4-1) took a 6-0 lead into halftime and then added to its lead on the first drive of the second half when Flohrschutz took it in from 4 yards out to make it 14-0 after the two-point conversion.
Emporia finally answered with a seven-play, 72 yard drive capped by a 26-yard TD run by Noonan.
EHS appeared to get the break it needed when Josh Maguire recovered a fumble on Heights’ next possession, but Noonan fumbled at the T-Bird 27-yard line to halt the Spartans scoring threat.
Emporia got down to the Heights 21 on its next possession, but Heights stopped EHS on fourth down, setting the stage for Noonan’s final TD run of the night after the T-Birds punted after a three-and-out.
Emporia has to travel to Highland Park next week before beginning District play with a road game at Wichita Heights.
“I really was excited about this game. I thought we were going to come out and play well,” Lowe said. “We want to get to the point where winning is expected, not where we just hope we can win.
“We’ve got to find some heart, we’ve got to find some mental toughness and some physical toughness, and we’ve got to go to practice and find out who we really are.”
Shawnee Heights 14, Emporia 13
Friday at Welch Stadium
Shawnee Heights 0 6 8 0 — 14
Emporia 0 0 7 6 — 13
Second Quarter
SH — Austin Flohrschutz 13 run (kick failed)
Third Quarter
SH — Flohrschutz 4 run (Matt Kobbeman pass from Sam Vossen)
Emp — Edd Noonan 26 run (Blaze Witten kick)
Fourth Quarter
Emp — Noonan 48 run (kick failed)
GAME STATISTICS
SH Emp
First downs 14 14
Rushes-yards 42-278 47-245
Comp-att-int 7-10-1 4-9-0
Passing yards 88 35
Total plays-yards 52-366 56-280
Fumbles-lost 4-1 1-1
Penalties-yards 4-39 3-30
Punts-avg 4-31.8 3-35.3
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — SH: Austin Flohrschutz 22-247, Tyler Pfeifer 10-24, Tim Bell 1-12, Garrett Brower 5-9, Sam Vossen 4-(-14). Emporia: Edd Noonan 29-163, Taylor Euler 8-36, Mark Kolmer 7-35, Corey Bacon 3-11.
Passing — SH: Vossen 6-9-1 57, Andrew Taliaferro 1-1-0 31. Emporia: Euler 4-9-0 35.
Receiving — SH: Matt Kobbeman 3-57, Taliaferro 3-28, Brower 1-3. Emporia: Brandon Childs 1-27, Harrison Stone 2-19, Kolmer 1-(-11).
Records — SH (4-1, 4-1 Centennial League). Emporia (3-2, 3-1).