MANHATTAN — Manhattan High’s undefeated run was flattened, finished and covered in the cleat marks of Mark Kolmer and Corey Bacon and the handprints of an Emporia High offensive line that’s bruising everything in its path.
Emporia pounded its way to its third straight victory Friday night at Bishop Stadium, getting 208 yards rushing from Kolmer and 146 from Bacon to beat 5-0 Manhattan 28-14 and leave no doubt that the Spartans’ rushing attack is finally in top form.
“All week, we were talking about how Manhattan’s only given up one touchdown all year, and we took that as a challenge,” quarterback Taylor Euler said. “And I think coming in here on their field and scoring four touchdowns on ’em, I think that’s a great accomplishment.”
Manhattan had actually given up two touchdowns — one TD each to Blue Valley and Seaman. That was before the Spartans (4-2) came in and unleased the Kolmer/Bacon thunder-and-lightning show.
Just like last week, Kolmer was the heavy lifter. He carried 40 times, running both past and over Manhattan defenders, delivering a near-carbon copy of his 198-yard performance in last week’s win against Seaman. He carried six times in a row and 10 times on a 14-play, 70-yard drive in the third quarter that took more than seven minutes and ended with Emporia’s last score, a 6-yard TD dive by Euler at the left corner of the end zone.
On top of the 40 carries, Kolmer played much of the game at safety, too.
“(I’m) a little tired,” he said. “I know that it’s the hardest damn defense I’ve ever played, and it definitely took its toll. But, (I) live to play another game.”
While Kolmer kept the drives going, Bacon got the night’s two biggest scoring plays. Emporia was down 7-0 in the first quarter following a 91-yard punt return TD by Jordan Nelson when the Spartans got the ball back for their second drive. After Kolmer got four of the drive’s first five carries, the Spartans were at Manhattan’s 44. Then, Euler faked the dive play to Kolmer, and Manhattan’s entire defense bit on the fake. Euler gave Bacon the ball, and he ran to a wide-open right side and sprinted to the end zone untouched with 5:35 left in the first.
Emporia got a big break in the second quarter when Indians running back Derek Campbell muffed a toss. Taylor Lee got on the ground and grabbed the ball at the Manhattan 40, giving the Spartans a short field. Bacon’s 28-yard run on a misdirection play set up a 1-yard TD run by Kolmer to give Emporia a 14-7 lead with 9:35 left in the half.
The Indians responded with a 20-yard play-action TD throw from Blair DeBord to Cale Miller with 4:10 remaining in the half. But Emporia answered on its next drive. On 3rd-and-1 from Manhattan’s 31, Euler faked to Kolmer and kept right on the option. After crossing the line of scrimmage, Euler pitched to Bacon on what may have been an illegal forward pass. But if it was, the officials didn’t catch it, and Bacon sprinted down the right sideline for a TD with 1:46 left. Brian Dorsey missed the extra point, leaving the score at 20-14 at halftime.
Emporia held Manhattan to a three-and-out to begin the second half, and the Spartans’ next drive gobbled nearly seven minutes off the clock before Euler scored from six yards out. On 2nd-and-goal from the 6, he faked a toss, rolled left, stuck his right hand out with the ball and dove, just getting the ball across the corner of the end zone. A swing pass to Kolmer on the 2-point conversion made it 28-14.
Manhattan, like Seaman last week, struggled to even grab the ball back from the Spartans. EHS added a six-and-half-minute drive in the fourth quarter, and though it resulted in a missed 32-yard field goal, it left Manhattan with just 2:14 left to work. Before that final Indians drive against Emporia’s prevent defense — which ended just short of the end zone as time expired — Manhattan had just 26 second-half yards. Derek Campbell, the Indians’ top runner, was held to just 54 yards on 14 carries.
Coach Bill Lowe said EHS still has some things to work on. But if the Spartans aren’t playing their best football now, they’ll be downright frightening when they do.
“We wore ’em down, and that’s our game, and we have to be able to do that,” Lowe said. “And I thought our kids did a great job. Thought Taylor did a great job at quarterback on his reads. I don’t think he missed a read all night. And Corey Bacon ran hard, our backs blocked, (Brian) Keisler... our five offensive linemen though, my God — they got after a pretty good team.”
Friday at Manhattan
Emporia (4-2, 3-2) 7 13 8 0 — 28
Manhattan (5-1, 2-1) 7 7 0 0 — 14
First quarter
MAN — Nelson 91 punt return (Rogers kick)
EMP — Bacon 44 run (Dorsey kick)
Second quarter
EMP — Kolmer 1 run (Dorsey kick)
MAN — Miller 20 pass from DeBord (Rogers kick)
EMP — Bacon 31 run (kick failed)
Third quarter
EMP — Euler 6 run (Kolmer pass from Euler)
GAME STATISTICS
EMP MAN
First downs 20 14
Rushing yards 384 93
Comp-Att-Int 2-2-0 14-27-2
Passing yards 17 179
Total yards 401 272
Fumbles-lost 2-1 1-1
Penalties-yards 1-5 5-51
Punts-Avg. 2-33.5 4-31.5
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — EMP: Kolmer 40-208, Bacon 12-146, Euler 8-29, Keisler 1-1.
Passing — EMP: Euler 2-2-17; MAN: DeBord 14-27-179, 2 INT.
Receiving — EMP: Loucks 1-9, Bacon 1-8. MAN: Wilkinson 7-61, Miller 3-51, Trudo 2-38, Webber 2-29.
Highlights
- Dominance upfront on offense — again. Danny Goodman, T.J. Heins, Lorenzo Serna, Jordan Barr and Cody Yevak continue to give Mark Kolmer the holes he needs to both burst past and run over people. With Kolmer churning out 209 yards on 40 carries and the defense keying on him, Corey Bacon produced several explosive runs, including two TDs. EHS collected 384 total yards on the ground and only passed twice.
- The EHS run defense. Manhattan’s Derek Campbell is a quick, athletic back whose perimeter running ability looked early on like it might be trouble for the Spartans to contain. It wasn’t — Emporia held Campbell to just 54 yards and stopped him behind the line of scrimmage three times, including a momentum-killing 9-yard loss in the fourth quarter.
- Taylor Euler on both sides of the ball. Coach Bill Lowe’s postgame recollection was that Euler hadn’t missed a single read all night running the option, and in his third game playing safety, Euler came up with two big interceptions.
- One penalty. Uno. After that encroachment infraction on their second defensive play, the Spartans didn’t commit another one all night. In terms of playing by the rules, they’ve been remarkably disciplined the past two weeks.
Lowlights
- Kicker Brian Dorsey, who jumped over from the soccer team just before the season started, had a rough night, missing an extra point and field goal attempts of 22 and 32 yards.
- Bacon’s muffed fair catch at the EHS 47 in the fourth quarter gave Manhattan a glimmer of hope, as the Indians were still down just two scores with 9:56 left to play. Fortunately, the stop on Campbell for a 9-yard loss came on the next play, sucking away the Indians’ emotional lift.
- This is picky, especially since the Spartans were in a prevent defense on Manhattan’s final drive — but still, the Indians used their passing game to march down the field way too easily in their two-minute drill. Before its last drive, Manhattan had just 26 total yards in the second half and 177 for the game; on their final drive, the Indians added 95 yards to that total.
Bottom Line
- Same game, better opponent, bigger win — this practically mirrored last week’s win over Seaman at Welch Stadium. Emporia’s O-line is playing like a state championship-quality unit, Kolmer is proving he can put up the yards with any back in the Centennial League, and defenses keying on him leave Bacon room to make big plays. Meanwhile, the Spartans’ more rested defense gets its stops and gets to leave the field for extended periods. Emporia is playing the type of football it was meaning to play all season, and it looks like the Spartans are ready for district play.
Percy’s practice play
prepares Emporia
Emporia High’s defense did an impressive job Friday night of containing athletic Manhattan running back Derek Campbell, whose quickness on the perimeter was in evidence early in the game. Campbell ended up with just 54 yards on 14 carries.
According to EHS co-defensive coordinator P.J. Marstall, the biggest help in preparing for Campbell came from a senior practice player.
“The biggest thing is, we have a kid that can’t play for us on the varsity level, but does a great job — Percy Dukes emulates any tailback (the other team has),” Marstall said. “And Percy does a hell of a job. So we’ve seen speed like that just in practice, so that’s helped.
“I think the scheme we’re playing right now (helps), where we’re more outside-conscious, and funnel stuff back to our ’backers, who are reading now. And we got T.J. (Heins) in the middle, which helps a lot, because now he’s requiring double-teams. So it’s really not a bunch of X’s and O’s — we really just run a 5-2, to be honest.”
D-line shuffle
Heins, also the starting right offensive guard, has been one part of an ongoing shuffle in the Spartans’ defensive line. Sophomores Austin Birch and Adam D’Angelo have been getting reps inside, with junior Jordan Knight moving to the outside. Marstall said the Spartans aren’t looking for a set rotation — they just want to keep people fresh.
“We’re seeing more kids in there that are working well, but T.J.’s the one who’s stepped up along both ways, and that helps,” he said. “Whenever you require one kid on the line to take a double team, then they’re not getting our ’backers, and all of a sudden our ’backers are making tackles.”
Two more picks for Euler
Taylor Euler’s transition to safety seems to be going pretty well three weeks in.
Euler picked off his second and third passes of the season on Friday night, returning the second one 26 yards to the Manhattan 21.
“We had a great defensive scheme. We knew that they wanted to try to get the ball to No. 7,” Euler said, referring to Indians wide receiver Cale Miller. “That was on the scouting report — No. 7 is their main receiver. So I just kind of flowed with him, and wherever he went, I kind of just tried to shadow him, and that one time, it just kind of went right in my hands. But our defense did a great job.”
Streak-busters
Not only was Emporia the first team to beat Manhattan this year, the Spartans were the first to score more than one touchdown against the Indians — they scored four — and the first to total more than 200 yards on offense. In fact, the Spartans doubled that benchmark, ending up with 401 yards.
Emporia’s 28 points eclipsed the total Manhattan had given up all season — 17.
Comments
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Posted by sjschlote (anonymous) on October 13, 2008 at 1:17 p.m. (Suggest removal)
It's amazing that Coach Marstall can give kudos to T.J. Heins, whom I do believe is a wonderful player and a great addition to the Emporia High defense, for being "double-teamed", but what about Jordan Knight? A newcomer to the varsity team this year, he was being "double-teamed" the first three games at nose. He did an awesome job, as most of the other boys do, but with no recognition. What's up with that? Also, what is the deal with certain players, playing two and three different positions, while there are boys standing on the sideline, with no play time at all? And the school wants to no why more parents are not supportive on the away games. I travel, and watch, with excitment and enthusiasm, but its also depressing to know that these boys kill themselves everyday at the same practices, but do not get a minute of play. My boy does, so that's not the problem. I just wonder what the other parents feelings are?
Posted by neighbor (anonymous) on October 13, 2008 at 2:44 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Good job Spartans, way to show your strength and capabilities. Was always good to beat Manhattan when I played at EHS years ago.
sjs- Favoritism and limited playing time is not unique to EHS, it's a shame that it's permitted to happen. Not only are the kids being deprived the chance to learn, improve their skills, and be given the opportunity to qualify themselves for scholarships to advance their education, the team is also potentially being denied access to hidden talents, star quality, and skills that could improve the over all team while increasing their chances at a winning record. When I was in school, alot of kids got starting positions due to social status and name recognition of the parents. Not much has changed today. I know where my kids go to school, you're guaranteed a starting position on varsity and alot of playing time if your parent is a coach(3 year letter winner so far with little warranting the award), school district staff member, school board member or administrator, an employee of another education facility, the child of a successful business operator, or live in the same little town as the coach and their kids. Students have transferred out of our District because of this opting to go else where in hopes of getting playing time and better opportunity due to this accepted practice. We have lost many of our best athletes to other schools and many students have quit sports altogether rather than sitting on the bench while only getting to play for the "B" or "C" teams their entire high school career.
Posted by UsayULoveGod (anonymous) on October 13, 2008 at 2:58 p.m. (Suggest removal)
WOW!
Posted by edorsey (anonymous) on October 18, 2008 at 5:59 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I guarantee if there is someone on the sideline that has the talent they either haven't proved themselves in practice or have a very good reason for not playing (i.e.: bad attitude, inconsistencies, grades, etc.). Coming from a former player, if your children or anyone else has and does what it takes to play, they would be playing.
The recognition thing? This is dumb, quit complaining about recognition the only thing that matters is whether you win or lose, maybe if you had a good game you can pat yourself on the back but it really doesn't matter if you lose. Recognition is saved for after the season, things like All-State, All-District, and All-League.
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