In Emporia High’s minds, the playoffs begin Friday.
Unless the Centennial League title is considered a big deal — and Spartan coach Bill Lowe already is on record as saying the league crown isn’t something his team worries about — the final three games of the regular season are essentially everything.
So forget that Emporia is already out of the race for the league title, which Junction City will either win outright or share with Manhattan. Forget that the Spartans are 4-2, or that they’re tantalizingly close to being 6-0. It’s district time, and Friday’s game at Topeka West represents a reboot for EHS.
“Right now, we’ve been telling ourselves our record’s 0-0,” senior Jacob Loucks said. “These three games are the only ones that matter, just to get us into the State playoffs.
“So we just have that goal in mind that we’re not going to lose this year. We’re gonna make sure we find a way to get in.”
The Spartans have plenty of guys who were part of last year’s ill-fated district effort. Emporia, coming off a State playoff appearance in 2007, played its best football right before district play started. But once it got into the teeth of its district — with two solid teams in Salina Central and Salina South — EHS suffered a pair of painful losses and found itself sitting at home for the Class 5A tournament.
“We definitely feel like we have a little redemption to prove,” said quarterback Brandon Gentz, who played mostly receiver in 2008. “The Salina schools are tough, and they’re gonna give us their best shot. But we feel like we’ve improved from last year. We’re more of a team, and we feel like we definitely have something to prove in our district and in the whole state.”
The Spartans rolled Topeka West 47-0 to open district play last year. Then came a gut-wrenching 31-28 loss at Salina Central in which Emporia led much of the way before the Mustangs booted the deciding 30-yard field goal with six seconds remaining.
A win there would have clinched a playoff spot for the Spartans. Instead, they came home needing a victory against Salina South in the season finale and got smacked around, losing 40-16.
“It’s always been in the back of our mind,” Loucks said. “We knew last year we had the team to do it — we just feel like we just let it go, let the opportunity slip past. That’s what we’ve been working for all year.”
On paper, Class 5A’s District 5 looks to have about the same level of difficulty this year. Topeka West, after a 1-8 2008 season, is once again struggling at 1-5. Salina Central, which finished 5-5 last year, will enter this weekend with a 5-1 record. Salina South, which was 8-3 in 2008, is now 3-3.
For Lowe, whether the Spartans will navigate their district and make the playoffs will come down to how bad they want it.
“It comes down to attitude and how important it really is to you,” he said. “The biggest key is gonna be to win this first game, and find out how important it is to the seniors to keep playing. And I think that’s the biggest thing, is just how much it really means to ’em.
“A lot of ’em have invested a lot in it, so I hope it means a lot. But you never know — as a coach, you never know, deep down, what kids are thinking, or what their mindset is.”
About Topeka West
Lowe calls Topeka West “a scary team,” suggesting that he’s easy to frighten.
The Chargers did push a 4-1 Washburn Rural team to the limit last week, with Rural scoring a TD with 20 seconds left to win 20-13. But T-West’s other four losses have come by an average of 21.5 points, although they did lose to Manhattan by just a 13-0 final. Their only win is a 21-0 victory over winless Highland Park.
Athletic senior quarterback Tyrell Brown had a fine passing night against Rural, completing 11-of-16 throws for 217 yards. The 6-foot-6, 205-pound Brown is the Chargers’ leading rusher as measured by total yardage (330), but he’s averaging just 3.3 yards per carry. Junior running back Aaron Plump has 291 yards for the year and is averaging 3.8 per attempt.
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