For three weeks this season, Emporia State defied football fate and did not turn the ball over once.
Garin Higgins didn’t like when anyone brought it up. He’d immediately knock on wood. He would have sacrificed a goat if he thought it would have helped.
Last week, Zach Rampy finally threw an interception, but it was an irrelevant turnover — too late in the game to cost the Hornets.
Then finally on Saturday at Welch Stadium against Missouri Southern, the football Gods got even. Seville Ko was about to extend a drive on third down late in the third quarter when the ball mysteriously popped out of his hands.
“Nobody knew (how),” Higgins said. “I don’t know if they stripped him. I don’t know what happened.”
The ball ended up five yards down the field in the hands of Missouri Southern’s Terramce Scott on the 45-yard line. Scott returned the fumble 43 yards; ESU quarterback Andre Sloan El re-injured his left ankle trying to keep Scott out of the end zone; the Lions scored the go ahead touchdown on the next play and the Lions would go on to give the Hornets their first home loss of the season, 19-18.
“We just made too many mistakes,” Ko said. “In a close game like this, we didn’t take advantage of enough opportunities in the first half. In the second half, I’ve got to hold onto the ball on short yardage and that ended up hurting us.”
Ko’s fumble gave the Lions the lead, but the Hornets should have never been in a position to give it away.
In the first half, Higgins’ offense was rolling. They racked up 188 rushing yards. Ko was having his best game of the season, running for 95 yards. And the Hornets made it to the red zone four times and came away with three Matt Perry field goals and a miss. On the Hornets one touchdown — a 66-yard run by Sean Partridge — Perry missed the extra point and the Hornets led by only eight points at halftime.
“On offense, we can’t put the game on our freshman kicker’s shoulders,” Ko said. “I don’t put any blame on him, 18 years old, it’s his first time kicking as of last week. He did a good job. We just need to take advantage of opportunities.”
Emporia State didn’t have many opportunities in the second half, but when they did, it was the same old story. The offense was stagnant until Rampy came into the game for Sloan El.
On Rampy’s second play, the first play of the fourth quarter, he ran 22 yards — one yard short of equaling the Hornets entire output in the third quarter. Three plays later Rampy connected with Partridge on a 29-yard pass to the MSSU 4-yard line. But once again, the Hornets could not get in the end zone, a third down pass falling through the hands of Brian Murphy. Higgins decided to take the points instead of going for the lead, and Perry kicked another field goal to pull the Hornets to within one point.
“There was still 10 minutes left. I thought our defense was playing well,” Higgins said. “I wanted to make sure we got points on the board... There were so many opportunities for us, it shouldn’t even have come down to that. ”
The ESU defense didn’t give up another point, but the offense never threatened again.
The Hornets lost the turnover battle for the first time all year. Sloan El also had an interception in the second quarter when the Hornets were driving — another missed opportunity to come away with points.
“We have been real good this year not turning the ball over,” Partridge said. “We had two turnovers today and we can’t have that. We’re not the type of team that can turn the ball over. That’s not our style. We’re not really there yet to bounce back from stuff like that. When we control the ball, we’re a good team.”
The Hornets proved they were a good team with their 3-1 start. But now they’re 1-2 in the MIAA and the next three are on the road and the Hornets last conference road win was in 2006 against Southwest Baptist.
“This definitely hurts a lot,” Ko said. “We were at home. It was a big game. It hurts right now, but we’ve got to bounce back next week, because it only gets harder from here on out.”
Saturday at Welch Stadium
Missouri Southern 0 7 12 0 — 19
Emporia State 9 6 0 3 — 18
First quarter
ESU — Perry 36 field goal
ESU — Perry 29 field goal
ESU — Perry 39 field goal
Second quarter
MSSU — Hunt 18 run (Malette kick)
ESU — Partridge 69 run (kick failed)
Third quarter
MSSU — Hunt 2 run (conversion failed)
MSSU — Hunt 2 run (conversion failed)
Fourth quarter
ESU — Perry 19 field goal
GAME STATISTICS
MSSU ESU
First downs 16 14
Rushes-yards 38-153 46-229
Comp.-Att.-Int. 12-20-0 13-24-1
Passing yards 86 89
Total plays-yards 58-239 70-318
Fumbles-lost 1-1 1-1
Penalties-yards 7-55 5-30
Punts-average 6-41.0 2-42.0
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — MSSU: Hunt 24-133, Johnson 8-25, Williams 2-17, Team 1-minus 3, Hinspeter 3-minus 19; ESU: Ko 15-109, Partridge 4-58, Rampy 6-27, Smith 8-24, Wieser 3-9, Murphy 5-5, Team 1-minus 1, Sloan El 4-minus 2.
Passing — MSSU: Hinspeter 12-20-0 86; ESU: Sloan El 9-17-1 49, Rampy 4-7-0 40.
Receiving — MSSU: Johnson 4-27, Thompson 2-30, Norman 2-15, Henderson 2-12, Smith 1-1, Johnson 1-1; ESU: Partridge 4-40, Smith 3-18, McEvoy 2-11, Ko 2-8, Hageman 1-9, Sullivan 1-3.