Photo by Adam Vogler
Emporia State's Xavier Smith (28) tries to break through a tackle during the first half of the ESU Washburn game.
TOPEKA — The Hornets hoped quarterback Andre Sloan El’s return to the lineup on Saturday at Washburn was going to rekindle the efficient, mistake-free offense that had them off to a 3-1 start this season and averaging 28.5 points per game.
But unfortunately for the Hornets, Sloan El’s return couldn’t fix the team’s long-snapping issues, and it didn’t really fix the offense either. Two bad snaps, four turnovers and a 1-for-13 conversion rate on third down gave the Hornets their third straight loss and Washburn a 14-6 victory.
“We are not a good enough football team right now to make those mistakes and overcome them,” ESU coach Garin Higgins said.
While the offense and special teams struggled, the Hornets defense nearly negated the turnovers and mistakes in the kicking game. Washburn routinely played on a short field in the first half and the ESU defense forced a fumble and two field goals to give the Hornets a chance at a comeback when they only trailed 6-0 at halftime.
“We had the momentum even though we had all the turnovers,” ESU safety Tyler Mikkelson said.
Halftime felt a lot like two weeks before, when Emporia State had failed to capitalize by scoring touchdowns off Missouri Southern’s mistakes and Southern trailed only 15-7 at half. This time it was the Hornets who felt fortunate to still be in the game.
“We gave them so many opportunities the first half and it could have been a lot worse than what it was,” Higgins said. “It was 6-0 and we felt pretty good at halftime. I told our guys, we’re going to get a break, something is going to go our way. If something happens where it doesn’t, we’ve got to go out and make our own breaks.”
It was up to Sloan El and the offense to get the Hornets back in the game, but Sloan El threw interceptions on both of the Hornets’ first two possessions of the third quarter.
After the first interception, Mikkelson gave the Hornets the ball back two plays later when he had his second forced fumble of the game. Mikkelson’s forced fumble gave the Hornets the momentum and Sloan El finally capitalized with a 30-yard pass to Sean Partridge that put the Hornets past the 50 yard-line for the first time all day. But then Sloan El tried to go deep to Partridge again on the next play and the ball hung up in the air for too long and was intercepted by Naji Shinskia.
“I just didn’t come out ready to play today,” Sloan El said. “I missed a lot of throws that I should have made and I think I just didn’t play as well as I’m capable of playing.”
The ESU offense hasn’t played up to the standards it set in the first four weeks during the current three-game losing streak. Sloan El and the offense had only one long drive on Saturday — a 7-play, 96-yard touchdown drive in the fourth quarter capped by a Danny McEvoy 42-yard touchdown catch — but the inability to convert on third down and turnovers kept the Hornets from finding a rhythm.
“We don’t have that swagger right now,” McEvoy said. “We’ll get it back, but our confidence is down a little bit.”
It didn’t help that ESU’s punting game has allowed opponents to win the field position battle. The Hornets fumbled two punts and also had a punt blocked against Washburn.
The first special teams mistake came on the Ichabods’ first punt following a three and out on their first possession. The punt bounced off the leg of Kurt Webster, who was blocking to help set up a return. When Emporia State did finally get the ball after Washburn failed to capitalize, the Hornets went three and out and a bad snap to punter Johnny Torres enabled the Ichabods to block the punt.
Matt Coursen started the game as the long snapper, replacing David Diener, who had a bad snap hit the upback the previous week against Central Missouri. After Coursen’s second snap was high, Higgins went back to Diener, but the snapping issues came back to haunt the Hornets one more time. Following ESU’s only touchdown, the snap on the extra point was mishandled.
Photo by Adam Vogler
Emporia State's Bryan Tarkington (99) puts pressure on Washburn quarterback Dane Simoneau during ESU's 14-6 loss at Washburn.
“That tells you how important a deep snapper is,” Higgins said.
Washburn recovered the blocked punt on the ESU 8, and Mikkelson forced a fumble on the next play to give the Hornets the ball back. But the damage had been done by reversing the field position.
Washburn’s second field goal was set up by Xavier Smith’s mishandling of a punt, one of two that were mishandled by the Hornets, but the only one Washburn recovered.
“The wind kind of swirled up in there,” Higgins said. “I’m glad I wasn’t back there. I kept waiting for that to happen to them.”
The Ichabods avoided the special-teams mistakes and their offense did just enough to win.
The Hornets dropped to under .500 for the first time all season at 3-4 and are 1-4 in the MIAA, tied for last place with Fort Hays State and Missouri Western. The Hornets are at Missouri Western next week and then at home against Truman (2-3 in the MIAA) as they try to get back to being the team that was 3-1 just three weeks ago.
“We’re a different ballclub,” Higgins said. “It’s going happen, but we’ve got to earn everything that we get. We’ve got to go earn our wins. It’s not going to happen just because people feel sorry for us because we are a young team.”
Saturday at Yager Stadium
Emporia State 0 0 0 6 — 6
Washburn 3 3 0 8 — 14
First quarter
WU — Cummings 23 field goal
Second quarter
WU — Cummings 34 field goal
Fourth quarter
WU — Lowe 4 run (Powers pass from Simoneau)
ESU — McEvoy 42 pass from Sloan El (kick failed)
GAME STATISTICS
ESU WU
First downs 13 17
Rushes-yards 32-79 50-178
Passing yards 188 115
Comp.-Att.-Int. 16-27-2 10-30-1
Total plays-yards 59-267 80-293
Fumbles-lost 4-2 3-2
Penalties-yards 4-30 6-46
Punts-average 9-40.3 6-40.6
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — ESU: Sloan El 15-32, Ko 6-27, Abner 6-11, Wieser 2-5, Smith 2-2, Partridge 1-2; WU: Cooper 22-115, Lowe 17-63, Haug 4-23, Team 1-(minus 1), Iverson 1-(minus 6), Simoneau 4-(minus 26).
Passing — ESU: Sloan El 16-27-2 188; WU: Simoneau 10-29-1 115, Iverson 0-1-0.
Receiving — ESU: Smith 4-27, Partridge 3-47, Hageman 3-22, McEvoy 2-48, Mirocke 2-32, Ko 1-13, Abner 1-(minus 1); WU: Hastings 3-50, Powers 2-21, Bias 2-21, Knox 1-14, Cooper 1-5, Haug 1-4.
Comments
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Posted by fbfanatic (anonymous) on October 19, 2008 at 9:38 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Seems like the coaching change doesn't matter... ESU is still losing to MIAA teams and beatin the cupcakes in the pre-conference play.
Posted by beth (anonymous) on October 20, 2008 at 11:46 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I wouldn't call a team (Augustana) that is 6-2 and ranked fifth in their region a cupcake.
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