Omaha, Neb. — Adrian Abner paced on the track, head down, shoulders slumped.
The freshman running back had run for his first 100-yard game and his first touchdown Saturday night against Nebraska-Omaha. But Abner didn’t care to talk about his breakout game, as he kept shaking his head back and forth in disgust.
“None of it felt good if we didn’t win,” Abner said.
Nebraska-Omaha never gave Emporia State a chance to feel very good in the MIAA opener, a 41-20 loss for the Hornets.
UNO, ranked fifth in the country, came out on its opening drive and easily marched down the field for a touchdown. After the ESU offense went one yard in three plays, UNO’s Troy Kush returned Johnny Torres’ punt to the ESU 15. Three plays later, the Mavs had scored another touchdown, it was 14-0 and pride was all that was left at stake.
“I think we were sort of shell-shocked,” Sean Partridge said. “We’ve got a lot of young guys and a lot of them haven’t been in a game like this.”
The Hornets certainly hadn’t seen a team like this in their first two weeks. The Hornets feasted on mistake-prone teams to win their first two games easily. They came into Saturday’s game confident they could put a scare in UNO — maybe pull off an upset — but UNO wasn’t going to give anything away.
“It was kind of like we just went out there and we were waiting for something to happen,” ESU coach Garin Higgins said.
The ESU offense eventually showed some life, scoring 20 points and racking up 359 total yards, but the ESU defense never gave the Hornets a chance.
UNO scored on its first seven drives and never punted. The Mavs’ offense was so dominant that the Hornets had to take solace in the fact that they held the Mavs to field goals twice in the first half.
The Mavericks didn’t hurt the Hornets with big plays — their longest was 23 yards — but they averaged six yards per play, had 30 first downs and rarely went down on first contact.
“We just needed to wrap up better,” ESU safety Tyler Mikkleson said. “We were trying out there, but we’ve got to wrap up. On third downs and fourth downs, they converted pretty much every single one.”
UNO did convert on 11 of 16 third downs and also extended a touchdown drive with a fourth down conversion. The ESU defense didn’t get much help from its kickoff and punt coverage teams, which allowed the Mavs an average starting field position at their own 40.
“You can’t do that against a team like UNO,” Higgins said. “You go into a game and give them that type of field position, they’re going to take advantage of it.”
Last year, a team like UNO would have taken advantage of ESU like a cheap prom date. Higgins and his team have tried to forget their season-ending 62-0 embarrassment to Pittsburg State, but it still looms in the locker room.
Partridge, a senior who has been around for plenty of blowouts, wasn’t going to let this one get ugly. He stood up at halftime — when the Hornets trailed 27-7 — and told his teammates there would be no letdown.
“Whatever happens, happens,” he said. “We’ve got to go as hard as we can.”
Partridge played like a man possessed, catching five passes in the second half and six in the game for 108 yards. All of his catches were made in traffic and he took big hits after several.
“Golly, those six, they looked like 12,” Higgins said. “I mean those six catches he made were not easy catches.”
The Hornets were a missed extra point away from playing to a tie in the second half, and they were close to adding another touchdown when they drove inside the 10 and then turned the ball over on downs in the fourth quarter.
“It would have been a different game last year,” Partridge said. “It could have been a lot uglier. We’re a different football team this year. Our younger guys and us older guys didn’t let it happen.”
Saturday at Nebraska-Omaha
Emporia State 7 0 7 6 — 20
Neb.-Omaha 14 13 14 0 — 41
First quarter
UNO — McNeill 2 run (Zuerlein kick)
UNO — Eloi 9 pass from Miller (Zuerlein kick)
ESU — Abner 2 run (Maxwell kick)
Second quarter
UNO — Zuerlein 27 field goal
UNO — Zuerlein 40 field goal
UNO — Higgins 23 pass from Miller (Zuerlein kick)
Third quarter
UNO — McNeill 7 run (Zuerlein kick)
ESU — McEvoy 4 pass from Sloan El (Maxwell kick)
UNO — Miller 12 run (Zuerlein kick)
Fourth quarter
ESU — Hageman 15 pass from Sloan El (kick failed)
GAME STATISTICS
ESU UNO
First downs 18 30
Rushes-yards 31-172 46-210
Comp-att-int 29-14-0 29-20-0
Passing yards 187 239
Total plays-yards 60-359 75-449
Fumbles-lost 0-0 0-0
Penalties-yards 6-80 4-43
Punts-average 4-41.2 0-0.0
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — ESU: Abner 14-115, Sloan El 11-52, Smith 1-5, Murphy 1-0, Ko 4-0. UNO: McNeill 24-114, McCardle 8-39, Miller 10-38, Wesley 4-19.
Passing — ESU: Sloan El 14-29-0, 187. UNO: Miller 19-27-0, 225; Wunderlich 1-2-0, 14.
Receiving — ESU: Partridge 6-108, Hageman 3-39, McEvoy 2-13, Sullivan 1-12, Abner 1-8, Smith 1-7. UNO: Kush 7-53, Higgins 4-77, Nesbit 3-32,
Wells 2-27, Eloi 2-24, McCardle 1-16, Carey 1-10.