La’Darrian Page called him and his two backfield buddies Thunder, Lightning and Tornado. Adrian Abner called them Thunder, Lightning and Hurricane.
They might need to reconvene and figure out one nickname to go with, but the product was ready to go on display Thursday night at Welch Stadium.
Emporia State’s new and improved backfield combined for 344 of the Hornets’ 399 yards rushing in a eye-opening 48-17 win over Southwestern Oklahoma State.
The Lightning part of the equation was pretty easy to figure out; that would be Page, who ran for 153 yards, three touchdowns and dropped the jaws on numerous occasions of all 6,019 in attendance.
“The kid’s a freak,” ESU linebacker Nathan Linsey said. “I don’t even know what to say about the kid. He’s been hurt most of camp, so no one really saw what he could do until the last week or so.”
Page has put up numbers everywhere he’s been, running for 1,254 yards as an All-MIAA freshman at Missouri Western and 1,340 yards last year at Hutchinson Community College.
At Hutch, Page ran out of the power-I formation. The Hornets run a much different offense — the spread — and they came out in a new formation on Thursday, the pistol, which features the running back lined up directly behind the quarterback in the shotgun.
Page spent most of his time behind quarterback Andre Sloan El, but on the first play of the game, he lined up in the slot and he got the ball on a reverse, running for 36 yards and showing a top-end speed that Emporia has not witnessed for a long time.
“We wanted to come out and be explosive off the bat,” Page said. “We didn’t want to wait until the second quarter or third quarter to make plays. Coach was in our head to come out fast, and that’s what we did.”
Page followed his first run with a nine-yard burst to the outside to get the Hornets to the 9-yard line. He finished the drive with a nine-yard run up the middle on which he went untouched, which was true for all three of his touchdowns.
“I told the line we probably could have driven a truck through the holes,” Page said.
The offensive line and the defense all had flashes of brilliance against SWOSU, showing that the Hornets have the potential to be a much-improved team.
The 399 rushing yards, coming against a defense that gave up only 100 yards rushing per game last season, speaks to the play of the offensive line.
The Hornet defense might get overshadowed by the offense, but they also showed improved speed and potential to have a much better season. Other than 95 penalty yards in the first half, including 45 on SWOSU’s only touchdown drive, the defense matched the Hornet offense’s effectiveness.
SWOSU senior quarterback Steve Day, who owns most of the school’s passing records, completed only 15-of-32 passes and was intercepted twice and held to 131 yards passing. The SWOSU rushing attack didn’t fare much better, running for only 90 yards.
The Hornets won the turnover battle 4-1. Safeties Chris Poston and Travon Brooks both had interceptions, and Katrel Larkins and Kameron Gee both forced fumbles recovered by the Hornets. Day would have had three interceptions if not for a roughing-the-passer penalty on Larkins that negated a Travis Lee interception returned for a touchdown in the second quarter.
“At first we were a little shaky with the penalties,” Linsey said. “I think everyone was a little excited getting out there and hitting someone other than our own guys. But once everyone calmed down, you saw in the second half, we fly around and get to the ball and make plays.”
So, yes, the defense did its part in the blowout win, but most of the postgame chatter centered around Page, and for good reason. He gave the Hornets a 14-0 lead just 3 minutes, 38 seconds into the game with another easy 5-yard touchdown run.
On the Hornets’ next scoring drive, Page set up a Sloan El touchdown pass with a 50-yard run on a simple toss to the left where he outran the defense to the corner.
“He’s one of those guys that you don’t have to block everybody,” Higgins said. “But also at the same time, I think our other two running backs, Adrian Abner and Kevin Smart, bring a lot to the table too. They make La’Darrian better and at the same time, La’Darrian makes them better.”
Page gave way to his buddies in the second quarter with Abner and Smart taking over. Abner showed improved speed and moves from last season, going for back-to-back runs of 17 and 11 yards early in the second quarter.
In his freshman season, Abner showed glimpses of potential, but struggled to stay healthy. He packed on 20 pounds during the summer in an effort to make himself more durable, and he said he also got faster in the process.
With Page arriving, Abner has been moved to a backup role, but Higgins proved there are enough carries to go around. Abner ran for 114 yards and also got a touchdown late in the fourth quarter, making sure his buddy Page didn’t show him up too much.
“We feed off each other,” Abner said. “If one person does something good, we’re going to try to match that.”
Smart, a transfer from Northwestern Oklahoma State and the Thunder part of the equation, was only featured in one series late in the second quarter, but he also made the most of his touches. Smart ran for 22 yards on four carries, giving the Hornets a 27-10 halftime lead with a 2-yard touchdown run.
“I know you didn’t see Smart much tonight, but we kind of held him back a little bit,” Higgins said. “He’s a little bit of a changeup for us and did a great job when we got inside the 20. We didn’t have that last year. He would have played more tonight, but we felt like we wanted to protect him a little bit. He’s just coming off an MCL strain and really has only practiced the last two or three days.”
Higgins also used Page sparingly after his 109-yard, two-touchdown first quarter. He sat out the final two possessions of the second quarter and was getting stretched on the sideline.
Page said it was just cramps, putting to rest any doubts that he reaggravated his hamstring. He also proved that in the third quarter with a six-yard run that might have been his most impressive run of the night. Page started to the left, couldn’t find any space, cut back to his right and turned what should have been a loss into a six-yard gain.
“He’s one of those guys that you don’t have to block everybody,” Higgins said.
After the game, once Page had finished all his interviews, he had one last thing he had to accomplish for the night. Page wanted Higgins to meet his mom. Higgins had to get to one last TV interview, but he turned around and told his new star back, “hold on real quick,” and then chuckled to himself.
Page need not worry. If all goes right, he should have plenty of games where the coach will be happy to talk to his mom.
“He’s as good as we saw him when we played against him,” Higgins said. “We’re glad he’s on our team.”
Thursday at Welch Stadium
Emporia State 48, SW Oklahoma State 17
SW Oklahoma St. 7 3 7 0 — 17
Emporia State 21 6 7 14 — 48
First quarter
ESU — Page 9 run (Maxwell kick)
ESU — Page 5 run (Maxwell kick)
SWOSU — Haggerty 27 pass from Day (McIntosh kick)
ESU — Richardson 22 pass from Sloan El (Maxwell kick)
Second quarter
SWOSU — McIntosh 22 field goal
ESU — Smart 2 run (kick failed)
Third quarter
ESU — Page 1 run (Maxwell kick)
SWOSU — Hammond 38 run (McIntosh kick)
Fourth quarter
ESU — Hageman 3 pass from Rampy pass (Maxwell kick)
ESU — Abner 7 run (Maxwell kick)
GAME STATISTICS
SWOSU ESU
First downs 15 25 Rushes-yards 29-90 58-399
Passing yards 131 95
Comp.-Att.-Int. 15-32-2 11-19-1
Total plays-yards 61-221 77-494
Fumbles-lost 3-2 0-0
Penalties-yards 9-76 10-106
Punts-average 8-38.9 5-32.6
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — SWOSU: Hammond 21-98, Day 6-(minus 1), Hatton 2-(minus 7); ESU:Page 16-153, Abner 16-109, Sloan El 8-26, Smart 4-22, Murphy 1-14, Smith 1-3, Woods 1-0, Richardson 1-(minus 4).
Passing — SWOSU: Day 15-32-2 131; ESU: Sloan El 6-11-0 57, Rampy 5-8-1 38.
Receiving — SWOSU: Hatton 5-28, Haggerty 3-69, Sawyer 3-20, Hammond 3-3, Gragg 1-11; ESU: Richardson 4-47, Murphy 2-12, Coursen 1-16, Abner 1-6, Smith 1-5, Hageman 1-3.
Comments
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jscott (anonymous) says...
Lets see what happens when the big boys come to town
August 28, 2009 at 3:30 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
emporialifer (anonymous) says...
No doubt there are teams that are going to pound us this year - but let's not be completely negative here. There are some exciting things going on with the ESU Football Program. It takes time to build a program and we are starting to see some very positive things. Great job Hornets!!! Looking forward to an exciting season.
August 28, 2009 at 5:05 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
BIGBYRD (anonymous) says...
What a change in one year! This team is the real thing. Deep everywhere! Page, Abner, Smart, WOW! If Smart wasn't 100%, I can't wait to watch him later! Talk about smash mouth football! The Speed of the linemen was amazing! This is going to be a great year! Keep it up!
August 28, 2009 at 7:54 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
footballeyes (anonymous) says...
What exciting things are gong on in this program?
September 6, 2009 at 9:32 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )