Emporia High School Spartan football squad defeated Seaman 33-14 Friday in Topeka. (Courtesy Photo)
TOPEKA — Even when the evidence suggested otherwise, Emporia High stayed steadfast in its belief that the path to victory lay straight up the middle.
When Seaman’s defense stuffed Mark Kolmer on the dive play — which happened much more than the Spartans would have liked — they stayed the course. Kolmer kept getting the ball up the middle, and the Spartans kept grinding away, and grinding some more, getting just enough to keep chains moving and drives alive. By the end of the night, they had ground out 283 rushing yards in 62 carries and a 33-14 victory, moving their record to 4-1 on the year.
“At the beginning of the game, they had a nice scheme, and they were stopping what we were doing,” said Kolmer, who ended up with 145 yards on 38 carries thanks in large part to three TD runs in the game’s final six minutes. “But once we figured things out, we got some coaching at halftime, we really understood what we had to do. Stuff really started to open up because of the O-line doing what needed to be done.”
Before getting 73 yards in his final six carries, including those three scores, almost all of Kolmer’s runs were in the 1-5 yard range. But those modest gains were enough to keep the Spartans moving, and they set up a big play for Emporia’s first score of the game.
Trailing 3-0 on their second drive, the Spartans ran nine straight plays — seven of them Kolmer runs — with all but one of those plays going for four yards or less. Then, on third-and-5 from the 49, they finally used that predictability to become unpredictable. Quarterback Brandon Gentz faked to Kolmer, then gave it to Cody Lindquist coming across from his left halfback position. Lindquist cut to the right sideline, got past a would-be tackler and beat the Viking defenders to the end zone for a 49-yard scoring run. Kolmer added the extra point to make it 7-3.
Safety Levi Clark recovered a Nathan Stanley fumble on the final play of the first quarter, giving Emporia great field position at the Vikings’ 42. The Spartans marched to the 13, and Gentz floated a second-and-3 pass over the middle to a wide-open Collin Thomsen, who caught the ball a couple of yards inside the goal line for a TD. Emporia took a 14-3 lead to the half; the Spartans had 146 yards rushing at the break, even though Kolmer had just 44 on 19 carries.
“And he was getting frustrated, because they were taking some stuff away from him,” Emporia coach Bill Lowe said. “But he just kept pounding it up the middle, and finally, we figured out some things, and our linemen did a really nice job in the second half of getting some things changed in our schemes.”
Seaman’s Tyler Lutz kicked his second field goal about halfway through the third quarter to make it 14-6, and the Spartans then embarked on a nine-minute, 19-play drive that ended just short of the goal line. Kolmer was stopped on fourth-and-goal from the Seaman 1, giving the Vikings the ball back with 9:30 left and an eight-point deficit.
But the Spartan defense responded and ripped the momentum back to the Spartan sideline. Seaman picked up one first down, getting to its own 16, but from there, three huge stops in the backfield forced the Vikings to punt from their own 6.
“That was a huge turning point,” Lowe said.
Lutz’s punt went just 21 yards, and the Spartans needed only three plays to get Kolmer in the end zone for the first time with a six-yard run to make it 20-6.
Lindquist intercepted an under-pressure pass from Seaman quarterback Jacob Hurla on Seaman’s next drive, returning it 27 yards to the 8. Kolmer ran it in one play later, then closed his night with a 31-yard scoring run with just over a minute to go.
When Emporia actually allowed Seaman’s offense on the field, the Spartan defense contained the Vikings. Hurla whiffed on his first eight passes before completing his last four, setting up Seaman’s only TD, a four-yard run by Spencer Vanderbogart with 1:55 left. Vanderbogart led the Vikings (2-3) with 62 yards on nine carries.
Lindquist finished with 63 yards on five carries, and Gentz had 58 on 14 attempts.
“Such an emotional game for all of us,” Lowe said. “... But our kids, I’m telling you, they responded so well to what we asked of them, and I’m just really proud of them.”
Friday at Seaman
Emporia 33, Seaman 14
Emporia 7 7 0 19 — 33
Seaman 3 0 3 8 — 14
First quarter
SEA — Lutz 23 field goal
EMP — Lindquist 49 run (Kolmer kick)
Second quarter
EMP — Thomsen 13 pass from Gentz (Kolmer kick)
Third quarter
SEA — Lutz 26 field goal
Fourth quarter
EMP — Kolmer 6 run (run failed)
EMP — Kolmer 8 run (run failed)
SEA — Vanderbogart 4 run (Brown pass from Hurla)
EMP — Kolmer 31 run (Kolmer kick)
TEAM STATISTICS
EMP SEA
First downs 15 10
Rushes-yards 62-283 32-157
Comp-Att-Int 6-10-0 4-12-1
Passing yards 79 60
Total yards 362 217
Fumbles-lost 0-0 1-1
Penalties-yards 3-29 4-21
Punts-Avg. 2-23.0 1-21.0
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — EMP: Kolmer 38-145, Gentz 14-58, Lindquist 5-63, Loucks 5-17; SEA: Vanderbogart 9-62, Hurla 9-52, Dunham 8-30, Stanley 5-14, Rea 1-(minus-1).
Passing — EMP: Gentz 6-10-0, 1 TD; SEA: Hurla 4-12-1, 1 TD.
Receiving — EMP: Lindquist 3-48, Loucks 2-18, Thomsen 1-13; SEA: Garst 2-36, Gill 1-19, Brown 1-5.
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