Warrensburg, Mo. — ESU freshman quarterback Sheldon Smith scrambled back and forth across the field. He waved for his receivers to go deep as he neared the sideline — just like the quarterbacks in the pros do — then Smith threw back across his body, a jump ball in the middle of the field that was nearly intercepted.
ESU coach Garin Higgins hollered at Smith, “In two years, you can make that throw.”
In two years, maybe Emporia State will be ready for No. 22 Central Missouri. But on Saturday the Hornets were too young and too inexperienced to hang with the Mules, who coasted to a 42-14 victory at Walton Stadium to give the Hornets their first losing streak this season.
“The guys just aren’t making plays, and the teams we’re playing have a little bit to do with it too,” ESU coach Garin Higgins said. “It’s not always the play, it’s the Jimmy and Jo’s running that play. Central was a big physical team. And we’re very young. We started a true freshman at tackle today. We played three freshmen up front on the offensive line.”
Higgins started seven freshmen in all on offense, four on defense and 22 freshmen played. He was also forced to go to Smith, a third-stringer, at quarterback in the second quarter because Zach Rampy suffered a hip injury and regular starter Andre Sloan El was already out with an ankle injury.
The Mules are a team mostly made up of juniors and seniors and they exposed the baby Hornets.
“We just shot ourselves in the foot,” Rampy said. “The defense did a great job giving us good field position, we just didn’t capitalize on it. ... We always get something and we’re so close, we just need one or two plays and then we shot ourselves in the foot with penalties or lost yards.”
ESU special teams and UCM quarterback Eric Czerniewski also had a part in pulling the trigger. The Hornets gave up a special teams touchdown on a blocked punt, had a snap hit the upback on another punt and Johnny Torres also had one of his punts deflected.
Czerniewski ran for a touchdown and had touchdown passes of 56, 49, 55 and two yards on an ESU defense that came into the game as the top-ranked unit in the MIAA because of its ability to prevent big plays.
“We let them get past us,” safety Tyler Mikkelson said. “That’s what we tried to focus on this week, keeping everything in front of us and coming up and tackling, and those three big plays hurt us.”
ESU’s defense gave the Hornets a chance early. Central Missouri went three and out on its first possession and Sean Partridge returned a punt 41 yards to the UCM 34. Three plays later the Hornets had to punt, but Johnny Torres pinned the Mules at their own 6-yard line and the ESU defense again forced the Mules to punt and the Hornets had good field position.
Emporia State went three and out again, and then the Mules went to work.
“We had some field position there and it was kind of like one of those deals where we felt like we were getting ready to get going and we just never could get over that hump,” Higgins said. “And by the time we got to the top of that hump, it was 28-0 and Zach was banged up and our backs were against the wall.”
Czerniewski had thrown his three long touchdown passes by the 7-minute mark of the second quarter when Smth took over for Rampy. Rampy could not get the ESU offense moving before he left the game and it looked even more lost once Smith took the reigns.
Higgins moved Smith to receiver in training camp and until two weeks ago, he had not been taking snaps at quarterback in practice. His first five passes on Saturday were not even close to their targets and all fell incomplete.
“It’s fast out there,” Smith said. “I just had to slow down. The coach just told me to stop trying to make plays and settle down.”
The Hornets went five quarters without scoring a touchdown before Smith threw two touchdown passes in the fourth quarter, a 39-yard jump ball to Sean Partridge in the end zone and an 67-yard strike to freshman Xavier Smith.
“We felt like we could go deep on them,” Partridge said. “The coverage they play is daring you to go deep on them. That’s the way they play. They feel like they’re good athletes and they can cover that. We felt like we were good athletes and we could go deep on them. ... I’m sure we could have put up a few more points if we would have just did what we know we’re capable of doing.”
Smith and the Hornets showed potential in the final quarter and never quit playing. In their two blowout losses this season — the other coming to Nebraska-Omaha — the Hornets have competed in the second half and both scores could have been much worse.
“I know we got beat, but I have a different feeling about these guys. I really do,” Higgins said. “The competitiveness in them. There’s still some older guys showing some veteran leadership through some of these tough times.”
Saturday at Walton Stadium
Emporia State 0 0 0 14 — 14
Central Missouri 14 14 7 7 — 42
First quarter
UCM — Milner 56 pass from Czerniewski (Starks kick)
UCM — Tiernan 10 blocked punt return (Starks kick)
Second quarter
UCM — Milner 49 pass from Czerniewski (Starks kick)
UCM — Cosby 55 pass from Czerniewski (Starks kick)
Third quarter
UCM — Czerniewski 3 run (Starks kick)
Fourth quarter
UCM — Boehringer 2 pass from Czerniewski (Starks kick)
ESU — Partridge 39 pass from Smith (Perry kick)
ESU — Smith 67 pass from Smith (Perry kick)
GAME STATISTICS
ESU UCM
First downs 15 16
Rushes-yards 48-105 25-123
Passing yards 183 309
Comp.-Att.-Int. 6-14-0 18-25-0
Total plays-yards 62-288 50-432
Fumbles-lost 4-1 3-2
Penalties-yards 8-54 6-71
Punts-average 8-28.8 6-37.5
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — ESU: Smith 15-37, Murphy 8-35, Ko 8-20, Partridge 2-16, Smith 3-13, Wieser 3-0, Rampy 8-(minus-6), Mead 1-(minus-10); UCM: Milner 12-42, Givens 1-31, Gore 4-30, Gower 6-17, Czerniewski 2-3.
Passing — ESU: Smith 3-8-0 115, Rampy 3-6-0 68; UCM: Czerniewski 14-19-0 283, Corwin 4-6-0 26.
Receiving — ESU: Smith 3-119, Partridge 1-39, Hageman 1-16, McEvoy 1-9; UCM: Milner 5-114, Cosby 4-121, Sawyer 3-27, Richmond 2-24, Givens 1-15, Gower 1-7, Boehringer 1-2, Parks 1-(minus 1).