TOPEKA
One last momentum swing — one last violent turn after a first half that threatened to give fans emotional whiplash — and Emporia High was finally ready to put Topeka High away.
Fitting that the last big swing came from Mark Kolmer.
A monstrous first half by Kolmer — 196 yards and two touchdowns on the ground — had put the Spartans in position to put Topeka away with the football season less than an hour old. But EHS had let Topeka back in it, and then handed them the lead, with almost unconscionable speed in the second quarter. None of that was Kolmer’s doing, and when he got the chance to right the ship again, that’s exactly what he did.
Kolmer scooped up a Caleb Walker fumble and took it 20 yards to the end zone on the first play of the second half, giving the Spartans the lead back, and from there, it was their ballgame. They controlled the game just as they had early on, adding a 2-yard touchdown run from Brandon Gentz late in the third quarter and a 75-yard TD run by Jacob Loucks in the fourth to beat the Trojans 40-21 in the season opener at Hummer Sports Park.
Kolmer’s final numbers, 234 yards in 31 carries, were the gaudiest stats in Friday’s win, but the biggest night of the senior’s career thus far was a team effort. The Spartan line opened the holes ably for Kolmer’s up-the-gut rushing, and once he got past the defensive line, Kolmer set up and followed strong downfield blocking. He had a 55-yard run to begin Emporia’s second scoring drive, which featured a stiff-arm and a broken tackle before he rumbled free down the left sideline, getting stopped at the Topeka High 24. After scoring from one yard out to end that drive, Kolmer added runs of 14 and 20 yards on the Spartans’ next possession, scoring again from a yard out to make it 20-0.
“When you get blocks downfield like that, and just blocks all the way through and every way, you can have so much room to run,” Kolmer said. “Without those guys, this game would’ve been a lot closer.”
At halftime, in fact, it was, thanks to two crucial Spartan fumbles that helped Topeka High erase that 20-point advantage and take a 21-20 lead. With the score 20-7, Loucks took an option pitch, then got hit by two Trojan defenders and lost the ball. Cody Harrison scooped it up and ran 56 yards for the touchdown to make it 20-14.
The Spartans’ next drive featured three Kolmer runs for 34 yards, putting EHS at the Topeka 27 — but a Cody Lindquist fumble gave the Trojans the ball back. They then marched 80 yards, ending with an 8-yard scoring run by Harrison, and with the extra point, they had the lead. Somehow, despite running all over the Trojans for the first 24 minutes, the Spartans were trailing.
“I didn’t do a good job coaching the first half, either,” EHS coach Bill Lowe said. “And we got a lot of young kids who lost their composure a little bit. But you know what? They grew up at halftime, and they really responded to the challenge, and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
When Kolmer gobbled up Walker’s fumble on the first play of the third, the tide turned for good.
“Just been practicing that the whole year,” Kolmer said. “The ball’s on the ground, just pick it up and scoop and score. And when you take opportunities like that and turn it into positive movement, then things start going your way, and it’s a great feeling.”
Five minutes into the third, EHS embarked on a drive that lasted more than six minutes, converting two third downs and a fourth down before Gentz’s 2-yard scoring run. The 2-point conversion attempt failed, keeping the score at 32-21.
Lowe and the Spartans like to go for it on fourth down, but they showed particular guts in doing so on their next drive. Holding the 11-point lead, they chose to go for it on 4th-and-1 from their own 23, and Gentz got the yard he needed with 8:30 remaining.
Three plays later, on 3rd-and-9, Loucks — who had scored Emporia’s first TD on a 22-yard pass from Gentz with 5:43 remaining in the first — atoned for his fumble and put the game away. He took a toss on the left side, and with a huge hole, he found his way to the sideline running untouched for a 75-yard score. A 2-point pass from Gentz to Lindquist was good, making it 40-21.
“When I (fumbled), I got mad at myself, because we’ve been working on that all week, about ball security,” Loucks said. “And just doing that, it really angered me. So I wanted a little redemption. I wanted to make sure that the rest of the runs from now on, I made sure of protecting the ball, and I was able to do that. And then that run was just icing on the cake.”
Defensively, Emporia contained Topeka’s no-huddle offense, especially in the second half, when the Trojans had just 127 total yards. Lindquist picked off a Sam Johnson pass early in the second quarter, leading to EHS’s third scoring drive.
“On defense, we didn’t change anything (after the half),” Kolmer said. “We just had people playing their jobs and doing what they had to do. And everybody played as a team, and we ended up doing really well.”
Friday at Hummer Sports Park
Emporia 14 6 12 8 — 40
Topeka 0 21 0 0 — 21
First quarter
EMP — Loucks 22 pass from Gentz (Loucks kick)
EMP — Kolmer 1 run (Loucks kick)
Second quarter
EMP — Kolmer 1 run (kick failed)
THS — Johnson 15 run (Jantzen kick)
THS — Harrison 56 fumble return (Jantzen kick)
THS — Harrison 8 run (Jantzen kick)
Third quarter
EMP — Kolmer 20 fumble return (run failed)
EMP — Gentz 2 run (run failed)
Fourth quarter
EMP — Loucks 75 run (Lindquist pass from Gentz)
GAME STATISTICS
EMP THS
First downs 20 16
Rushes-yards 56-391 19-127
Comp-Att-Int 3-5-0 15-31-1
Passing yards 39 207
Total yards 430 334
Fumbles-lost 4-2 1-1
Penalties-yards 3-20 3-10
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — EMP: Kolmer 31-234, Loucks 8-94, Sheldon 4-32, Gentz 10-31, Lindquist 2-3, Parks 1-(minus-3); THS: Harrison 12-53, Williams 10-41, Johnson 5-26, Walker 2-7.
Passing — EMP: Gentz 3-5-0, 39 yds; THS: Johnson 15-31-1, 207 yds.
Receiving — EMP: Loucks 1-22, Thomsen 1-11, Kolmer 1-6; THS: Stephens 7-60, Williams 1-57, Harmon 3-46, Harrison 2-25, Clothier 2-19.
mikeandsharonwilliams (anonymous) says...
Nice job Spartans!
September 5, 2009 at 5:16 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )