That time before the season when the Emporia High football team’s fourth game of the year looked like a nice break following the huge challenges posed by the second and third games... that’s out the window now.
Washburn Rural isn’t Hayden or Junction City, but nor are they the same Junior Blues who went 1-8 each of the last two seasons. Rural pounded Wyandotte 49-6 in its first game, then scored a 7-6 upset win in a rain-soaked game at Seaman. A 28-21 overtime loss to Shawnee Heights last week has Rural sitting at 2-1, but the Spartans’ trip there Friday no longer looks like an easy win.
Still, the fact that Rural isn’t one of the top two teams in its class, as Hayden is in 4A and Junction City is in 6A, might give the Spartans (1-2, 0-2 Centennial) a chance to recharge and refocus now that those two powerhouses are out of the way.
Scouting Emporia
Short of maybe some Texas programs, seemingly no one in the high school ranks is harder on themselves after a loss than the Spartans. Last week’s 48-21 loss to Junction City was met with a large amount of self-blame, despite that anyone could see that Emporia had just run into a freshly sharpened buzzsaw of a football team.
“If we don’t get our act together, we’ll be 1-8, and I’m serious,” Lowe said after last week’s loss. “I mean, we just gotta find a way to get things going. I mean, we’ve gotta get better. That’s my job, to find out how to do that.”
That kind of reaction may seem a bit extreme for a loss against a potential state champion, but remember that Emporia views itself as a team that can go deep in the playoffs.
“If we’re gonna be a playoff-caliber team, like our our potential is to be,” defensive lineman Cord Stanley said, “then we’ve gotta get our (butts) in gear and be prepared to face ’em again on down the road. Maybe not Junction City, but tough teams like that.”
So it follows that against Rural, more than anything, the Spartans need a huge dose of confidence. Moving the ball early with their running game and grabbing their first lead since the second quarter of week two would provide that boost. Outside of a couple of big plays by quarterback Taylor Euler, the Spartans’ vaunted running game hasn’t chewed up the yards and put up the points it needed for the Spartans to win the last two games. The Spartans need better blocking both between the tackles and on the perimeter to free up holes for Euler, fullback Mark Kolmer and slotback Corey Bacon.
Though it usually takes an act of God for the Spartans to try to throw for big yardage, Shawnee Heights’ passing performance in its win over Rural last week is worth noting. Heights, like Emporia, is primarily a running team, but Heights quarterback Sam Vossen completed 14 of 16 passes for 153 yards and two TDs against Rural’s bend-but-don’t-break defense.
Scouting Washburn
Rural
The Junior Blues look to eat up most of their offensive yards with running back Andrew Edwards and fullback Luke Joliff. Edwards has been one of the Centennial League’s most prolific runners this year, with 428 yards and a 6.4 per-carry average. He carried 33 times for 175 yards in the loss to Heights. Joliff has been a solid second running option with 128 yards and a 5.1 average. Considering Emporia’s defense has been less than lockdown-quality against the run in each of its three games, stopping Edwards will likely be one of the Spartans’ toughest challenges.
Quarterback Trent Annan hasn’t usually been a source of big runs, but last week he was, running for a 60-yard score. Passing-wise, Annan hasn’t made much of an impact this year, completing 10 of 27 passes for 151 yards. The Blues attempted just three passes in the rain against Seaman, and Annan completed none.
As measured by yardage, the Blues have the top defense in the city of Topeka, with just 130 yards surrendered per game. With one game against a hapless Wyandotte team and the Seaman game bogged down offensively by the weather, that may be a somewhat misleading number. But even against Heights, Rural allowed just 66 yards on the ground.
The Blues’ only returning all-league player on either side of the ball is senior defensive end Kyle Duncan, a first-team selection last year. Duncan also was an All-City selection as an offensive lineman and honorable mention all-league. Tomasi Mariner is another playmaker along the defensive line, and Dylan Pryor, a linebacker who picked off a pass to finish off the victory against Seaman, is also a key defender.
Friday’s game will be the first league game for the Junior Blues because of the Centennial’s rule that only the last six league games count in the standings. Emporia’s losses to Hayden and Junction City both counted as league games, but its opening win over Topeka High did not.
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Posted by ghost (anonymous) on September 25, 2008 at 5:46 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I don't often comment on writers' opinions, but who has Berlin been watching?? Spartans have to block better between the tackles?? That's the only place there has been any blocking. Watch defenses collapse from the tackles or around them to collapse a play before the center and guards even complete their assignments. It's behind the center and guards that any running yardage has been successful at all.
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