It’ll be hard for Emporia High not to look back at a time during Friday night’s game when scoring a mammoth upset in the hostile and muddy house of Hayden seemed entirely possible.
The truth is, the mistake that killed the Spartans’ considerable momentum — a roughing-the-punter infraction that prevented Emporia from having the ball with a 7-6 lead — and the frustrating slew of mistakes that went with it weren’t likely to change the outcome. Hayden was too much for Emporia on both sides of the ball.
The Wildcats, ranked No. 1 in the state in Class 4A, used their running game to trudge through all sides and holes in Emporia’s defense, and the Spartans’ runners were all but neutralized as Hayden beat the Spartans 26-7 in a largely one-sided mud-wrestling match.
“They just knocked us off the ball,” EHS coach Bill Lowe said. “They were just more fundamentally sound than we were. ... They just got after us. We didn’t do a very good job of responding.”
It didn’t look like it would be that way early on, as the Spartans showed the fight and methodical execution they would need to have a chance against Hayden. On the opening drive of the game, EHS marched efficiently to the Hayden 24, with the highlight of the drive a 23-yard pass from Taylor Euler to Brian Keisler. But on 2nd-and-9 from the Hayden 24, the Spartans made their first miscue, as Sheldon Patton fumbled and Hayden recovered. That turnover — and the fact that Hayden immediately took the ball and used eight runs to drive 79 yards for a nine-yard TD by Raymond Gragg — could have broken the Spartans’ spirit immediately. But it didn’t.
Emporia got the ball back at its own 34, and Euler busted off EHS’ most dazzling play of the night, an option keep left that featured one spin move just past the line of scrimmage and another further downfield. He was finally brought down at the Hayden 30 after an energizing 36-yard gain.
Six plays later, Euler finished off the drive with another keeper, this one to the right side, from 13 yards out with 1:07 left in the first quarter. Hayden had missed its extra point, but Brian Dorsey’s kick following Euler’s TD was good, and the Spartans grabbed a 7-6 lead.
When EHS, aided by a block-in-the-back penalty, then pinned Hayden into a 4th-and-19 from the Wildcat 32, the Spartans were ready to take the ball back and give themselves a cushion. Instead, the roughing-the-kicker play gave the Wildcats new life, and they used it — seven plays and a pass interference penalty later, quarterback TJ McGreevy scored from two yards out. A successful two-point pass made it 14-6.
“Thought it was kind of a big momentum swing,” Euler said. “They were getting ready to punt, 4th and 19, and we made a stupid penalty. That’s kind of the theme of the night — stupid mistakes is what killed us.”
Emporia went three and out on its next drive, and Euler shanked a 17-yard punt that gave Hayden the ball at the EHS 40. Elliott Konrade ran for 25 of his 131 yards on the final play of the Wildcats’ next drive, scoring a TD that made it 20-7. Hayden’s subsequent two-point try failed, but the Willdcats took that lead to halftime.
The running attack that had already dropped 185 yards on Emporia in the first half picked up where it left off to begin the second. After Dorsey’s opening kickoff went out of bounds, a nine-play, 65-yard drive, featuring a 21-yard run by Konrade, concluded with McGreevy keeping to the right side for a nine-yard score. Another two-point try failed, but Hayden had a 19-point lead.
The Spartans kept fighting — and kept getting frustration for their trouble, as they embarked on an epic 10-and-a-half-minute drive that ended with no points. Euler was stopped a yard short of moving the sticks on a 4th-and-8 from the Hayden 13 with 8:43 left in the game, and Emporia had enjoyed its last opportunity to score.
With the exception of Euler’s big first-quarter run and three catches for 46 yards by Keisler, Emporia couldn’t get its attack going. Time and again, Hayden’s defense blew up the Spartans’ option plays,
“They had us scouted pretty well, and they were blitzing our linebackers,” Euler said. “It’s just another thing — we’ll get better.”
Hayden made its share of mistakes, too — in fact, the Wildcats racked up eight penalties for 75 yards, easily beating the Spartans’ five for 53. But the big ones the Spartans made will bother them as they relive Friday’s nightmare on film this week.
Lowe said the steady, occasionally heavy rain that fell throughout the game wasn’t a factor in the Spartans’ mistakes.
“We were undisciplined tonight,” Lowe said. “We didn’t play Emporia football, we were very undisciplined, and that’s gotta be my fault. We’ve gotta become more disciplined, trust each other more, and take care of each other, and we’ll find a way to get better.”
Lowe had talked earlier this week of using the game as a measure of how the Spartans stack up in the Centennial League. His assessment of how they stack up:
“Not very good right now,” he said, laughing. “We’re a long way from being good. But like I told ’em, we gave ’em a lot of plays, and we’ve got a chance to be a good football team.”
For his part, Hayden coach Bill Arnold thinks the Spartans are already there.
“Hey, Emporia’s going to win their fair share of ballgames,” he said. “They got a good ballclub, and I think Coach Lowe does a fantastic job with those kids. And you can tell that they buy into his system. I mean, they’re tough out there, and you’re gonna have mistakes when you’re playing in a quagmire out here.”
HAYDEN 26, EMPORIA 7
Emporia (1-1) 7 0 0 0 — 7
Hayden (2-0) 6 14 6 0 — 26
First quarter
HAY — Gragg 9 run (kick failed)
EMP — Euler 13 run (Dorsey kick)
Second quarter
HAY — McGreevy 2 run (Konrade pass from McGreevy)
HAY — Konrade 25 run (conversion failed)
Third quarter
HAY — McGreevy 9 run (conversion failed)
GAME STATISTICS
EMP HAY
First downs 9 17
Rushes-yards 43-137 45-298
Passing yards 46 33
Total plays 56 48
Total yards 183 331
Punts 2-27.0 0-0.0
Fumbles-lost 3-2 1-1
Penalties-yards 5-53 8-75
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — EMP: Euler 14-71, Bacon 9-29, Patton 7-17, Kolmer 8-16, Sheldon 3-4, Keisler 2-0; HAY: Konrade 12-131, Gragg 12-70, McGreevy 9-39, Rethman 4-22, Rothschild 2-16, Engroff 2-12, Bohannon 1-9, Steuber 1-1, Nicol 2-(-2).
Passing — EMP: Euler 3-5-0, 46 yds; HAY: McGreevy 4-11-0, 33 yards.
Receiving — EMP: Keisler 3-46; HAY: Rothschild 2-22, Rineberg 1-8, Konrade 1-3.
HIGHLIGHTS
F Taylor Euler’s 36-yard option-keep scramble in the first quarter, which featured at least one broken tackle and two spin moves to free himself of Hayden defenders. The run set up his 13-yard touchdown keeper with 1:07 left in the first quarter, which combined with the extra point to give Emporia a 7-6 lead. Euler was the only Spartan to have truly productive night on the ground, rushing 14 times for 71 yards.
F Sheldon Patton’s fumble recovery at the Emporia 21 with 2:57 left in the first half. Patton leaped over a fallen Hayden defender to pounce on the ball, fumbled by Hayden quarterback TJ McGreevy. The recovery came immediately after a Corey Bacon fumble at the EHS 17, which appeared to put Hayden in position to put the game out of reach before the half.
F Mark Kolmer’s crunching hit on Hayden tight end Christian Rabe on Hayden’s first play from scrimmage. Kolmer, who sat out the season opener with a sprained left ankle, started at safety and looked plenty healthy in blasting Rabe over the middle and forcing an incomplete pass.
LOWLIGHTS
F The Spartans’ special teams play. With the roughing-the-kicker penalty that took away crucial momentum in the second quarter, a shanked 17-yard punt and the second-half kickoff going out of bounds, little went right on special teams for Emporia.
F The run defense, which got blown off the ball time and again. Hayden dominated on the ground, gaining many of its yards on the perimeter. Elliott Konrade ran for 131 yards, and the Wildcats totaled 298 on the ground.
BOTTOM LINE
F The mistakes hurt, but Hayden is just too good, especially at home. Things don’t get any easier next week with Junction City, but at least the Spartans will get the Bluejays at Welch Stadium.