Under normal circumstances, it would’ve been a good win. Considering what Emporia State needed a week after its loss at Nebraska-Omaha, it was a great win.
Fort Hays State came into Welch Stadium on Saturday with the top-ranked defense in the MIAA and a big win over then-ranked Washburn the week before. The Hornets entered the game following the ugly defeat to UNO in which its defense got run through a shredder.
So naturally, Hornets quarterback Andre Sloan El tore up the Tigers’ defense before leaving late in the first half with an ankle injury, the Hornet D avoided surrendering big plays and touchdowns, and ESU walked away with a 24-13 win.
Will this first MIAA win for ESU (3-1, 1-1) be seen as a game in which they turned a corner? Maybe it’s a little early to say that. But in decisively beating a legitimate conference opponent, the Hornets showed nice signs of progress.
“It’s a big win for us, because... everybody wants to talk about, ‘What type of team is this?’ We lost last week,” coach Garin Higgins said. “And I always have said all along that this is a different football team. Our mindset is different.”
The fact that Emporia State had all of its points in the first half speaks to how good the offense was with Sloan El in command. The three points managed by Fort Hays State in the second half is testament to how good the ESU defense got as the game moved along.
Before hobbling off the field, Sloan El kept the ESU offense moving, finding receivers in space and using it well for himself. He rushed for 76 yards on eight carries — leading a by-committee effort that ate up 251 yards on the ground — and passed for 90 yards on 7-of-10 throwing. The rolled ankle at the end of a three-yard run knocked Sloan El off the field with 5:41 left in the first half and caused concern following the injury problems he battled last year. But Sloan El returned late in the game for clock-killing plays after backup QB Zach Rampy was tackled, fell on the football and got the wind knocked out of him.
“I mean, it’s throbbing right now,” Sloan El said after the game. “But I think it should be good if I keep it in treatment and (keep) it loose.”
The Hornets had no trouble moving the ball from the opening gun. On the game’s first play from scrimmage, Xavier Smith took a toss on a reverse and raced down the left side for what would have been a 67-yard TD run. But a holding penalty on Matt Coursen brought the ball back to the 42, making it only a 35-yard run for Smith and a net gain of 25 yards. From there, Sloan El added a run up the middle for six yards and one to the left side for 17, helping set the Hornets up for a Matt Perry field goal and a 3-0 lead.
Fort Hays responded with a drive in which quarterback Mike Garrison hooked up with receiver Anthony Smith four times for 58 yards. Corners Travis Lee and Shaunquez Powell gave Smith cushion, and he twice burned the Hornets on out routes, including on a 14-yard TD catch to give Fort Hays a 7-3 lead.
But the Hornets again moved quickly and efficiently downfield for another score, this one a nine-yard toss from a rolling Sloan El to Sean Partridge in the middle of the end zone. Adrian Abner had runs of 11 and 15 yards on the drive and took a hit on a pass interference call on 3rd-and-9 that kept the drive alive.
Sloan El’s 29-yard option keeper score to the right side gave ESU a 16-10 lead with 11:45 remaining in the half. He motioned a handoff to Brian Murphy, then found a hole off-tackle and ran to the right side, running in untouched for the score. Perry’s extra point was blocked, keeping the score at 16-10.
Earlier on the drive, on a 3rd-and-17 play from ESU's 43, Sloan El lofted a wobbly pass over the deep middle beyond two defenders, and Sean Partridge leaped and caught it for a spectacular 30-yard gain.
To Sloan El, the offensive success was a matter of always keeping plays alive.
“And we work scrambles through all the time, and I think that was a big thing for our guys,” he said. “They never just let the play die.”
When Rampy entered the game, little changed game plan-wise for ESU. He scrambled into space and made his reads carefully, avoided mistakes and finished 4-of-7 for 30 yards. The play which knocked him out — an impressive 54-yard sprint to the Fort Hays 2 that got called back by a holding penalty — happened with just a few minutes left.
“I didn’t know there was any(one) behind me, so I kind of let up,” Rampy said. “And he tackled me, I landed on the tip of the ball, got the wind knocked out of me. Couldn’t breathe there for a little bit, but 15 minutes later, now I’m good. ... I’ve got my breath back and everything.”
The Hornets’ final score of the game was set up with 1:04 left in the half when safety Derek Lohmann reached high to pick off a throw from Garrison and sped 23 yards to the Fort Hays 9-yard line. Two plays later, Rampy found Lucas Sullivan in the back of the end zone with 30.7 seconds left, then hooked up with Partridge on a two-point pass to make it 24-10.
The Hornets’ defense — in particular, its secondary — put the clamps on Fort Hays following that first scoring drive. Good coverage and well-timed pass breakups were big parts of keeping the Tigers from mounting a serious threat in the second half. The Tigers launched a 17-play, nine-minute drive in the third quarter, but it only resulted in a field goal to pull within 24-13.
Linebacker Katrel Larkins led ESU with eight tackles, and defensive end Angelo Webb had two of the Hornets’ four sacks, including one in which he came from the back side of the play, ignored a play-action fake and drilled Garrison.
Larkins said the improvement ESU made on defense from the first drive wasn’t really a matter of making adjustments.
“We (were) just all hyped up before the game,” he said. “But we didn’t like how they called us a scrappy team, so we was all hyped up on energy. And after that first drive, we finally settled down and started playing like the defense we are.”
Fort Hays’ last real threat came to an end early in the fourth quarter on a run up the middle by Jacobb Irvin — defensive lineman Matt McClain knocked the ball free, and Larkins fell on the fumble at the 50. Later in the fourth, with time ticking away, Fort Hays didn’t call its plays or get to the line with much urgency, and the Tigers used their final timeout with 5:53 remaining in the game. When Garrison threw an incompletion on 4th-and-8 from the ESU 36 with 4:14 remaining, the game was all but over.
“We played in spurts, I thought, defensively,” Higgins said. “And... I thought we showed a lot of resiliency today defensively, held ’em to field goals when they got into the red zone. That stuff’s big, that stuff’s important.”
Emporia State 24, Fort Hays State 13
FHSU 10 0 3 0 — 13
ESU 10 14 0 0 — 24
First quarter
ESU — Perry 29 field goal
FHSU — Smith 14 pass from Garrison (Rausa kick)
ESU — Partridge 9 pass from Sloan El (Perry kick)
FHSU — Rausa 26 field goal
Second quarter
ESU — Sloan El 29 run (kick blocked)
ESU — Sullivan 1 pass from Rampy (Partridge pass from Rampy)
Third quarter
FHSU — Rausa 21 field goal
GAME STATISTICS
FHSU ESU
First downs 20 22
Rushes-yards 36-115 44-251
Passing yards 130 120
Comp-Att-Int 12-24-1 11-17-1
Total plays-yards 60-245 61-371
Punts-Avg 2-30.5 2-38.5
Fumbles-lost 3-1 0-0
Penalties-yards 4-55 11-92
Time of possession 29:05 30:55
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — FHSU: Irvin 18-82, Garrison 10-9, Willis 8-24. ESU: Sloan El 8-76, Abner 11-66, Rampy 10-39, Smith 1-35, Ko 6-23, Murphy 3-11, Partridge 3-5, Team 2-(-4).
Passing — FHSU: Garrison 12-24-130, 1 INT; ESU: Sloan El 7-10-90, Rampy 4-7-30, 1 INT.
Receiving — FHSU: Smith 4-58, Irvin 4-35, Stroup 1-26, Willis 1-11, Haynes 1-1, Glenn 1-(-1). ESU: Smith 4-54, Partridge 3-45, McEvoy 1-12, Murphy 1-9, Sullivan 1-1, Smith 1-(-1).