An Emporia High victory wasn’t exactly a crazy notion. But this? This was domination.
Domination of the defending Class 4A State champions and a perennial power in that class. Domination of a team the Spartans hadn’t beaten since 1996. An upset?
Not in the self-assured minds of the guys who pulled it off.
“We always said if we win, it wasn’t gonna be an upset,” linebacker Brock Sheldon said. “We thought that we deserved to win, and that we would win.”
Emporia owned the line of scrimmage from the start, grabbed six turnovers and left no doubt about which was the better team, clobbering Hayden 28-6 on Friday at Welch Stadium. The Spartans (2-0, 2-0 Centennial League) moved the ball with almost unbelievable ease, pounding it down the middle with fullback Mark Kolmer early and later using the Wildcats’ fixation on Kolmer to open up running room outside the tackles.
Kolmer ended up with 115 yards on 28 carries and scored the Spartans’ first touchdown; quarterback Brandon Gentz scored Emporia’s other three TDs, including scoring runs of 37 and 17 yards. Emporia ended up with 290 yards on the ground.
“I just can’t say enough about our kids,” Emporia coach Bill Lowe said. “I mean, you never expect to beat Hayden like that. But, I don’t know — up front, our line of scrimmage just controlled their line of scrimmage.”
The Spartans’ opening drive worked almost to perfection; they took four minutes to march 53 yards and get in the end zone with 7:47 left in the first. Kolmer didn’t bust off any huge runs, but he began the game with a 10-yard carry and ran seven times for 29 yards on the drive, ending with a three-yard score to make it 6-0. The key play on the drive, though, came with EHS facing 3rd-and-14 from the Hayden 18. Gentz dropped back and floated a jump ball for Cody Lindquist, who brought the ball down at the 3 to set up Kolmer’s TD.
“These guys blocking in front of me... you can’t trade anything for these guys,” Kolmer said. “They come to practice every week and just know what they have to do. And come game time, I just trust ’em with everything — going out there, I know they’re gonna block for me. Those guys really won the game.”
With just over four minutes remaining in the half, Emporia illustrated what it can do when the opposing defense is sure Kolmer’s getting the ball on the option. Facing a 3rd-and-3, Gentz faked a handoff to Kolmer, cut right, then cut back through the middle of the secondary and sprinted to the left sideline, beating the Wildcats to the end zone for a 37-yard scoring run. Kolmer ran in a 2-point conversion to give EHS a 14-point lead.
The first of four fumbles recovered by the Spartans came on Hayden’s next drive, and it set them up for an astonishing 22-point halftime lead. On a 3rd-and-9 play from the Wildcat 36, Zach Hill came on an outside blitz and stripped the ball from Hayden quarterback Sean Morrow. Sheldon recovered for the Spartans at the Wildcat 33. Gentz immediately took more advantage of Hayden keying on Kolmer, faking to the fullback and scrambling again, this time for 17 yards.
On 3rd-and-8 from the 14, Gentz rolled right and pitched to Lindquist, who got to the outside and almost sneaked into the corner of the end zone, but was forced out at the 1. That set up Gentz’s over-the-top scoring plunge on 1st-and-goal with 1:18 left. On the ensuing 2-point play, Gentz ran play-action to Kolmer, then found tight end Collin Thomsen wide open on the right side.
The Spartan defense held Hayden’s running attack to just 183 yards, led by Alec Steuber’s 57 in 12 carries. Five of the Wildcats’ six turnovers came in the second half.
“(We) had to hit ’em hard and just keep hitting ’em — like Coach has been telling us, it’s a dogfight,” EHS center/defensive lineman Danny Goodman said. “So you gotta win by going aggressive and being the hitter, not the hittee.”
A Kolmer fumble on Emporia’s first second-half possession set up a nine-yard TD run by Steuber, and it looked as if the Wildcats might find the momentum needed to get back in the game. But Quincy Mitchell picked off a Morrow pass on Hayden’s next drive, and from there, Hayden became a turnover factory. Mitchell also recovered a fumble and delivered a jarring hit in the secondary on an incomplete pass, and Sheldon added a late interception in the end zone.
The final nail in the coffin came on the first play of the fourth quarter, when Gentz sprinted to the left side, got to the sideline and easily found the end zone from 17 yards out — with a vicious downfield block by running back Jacob Loucks on the Wildcats’ Riley Bohannon punctuating the play.
Hayden wasn’t the same team that won last year’s State title — the Wildcats replaced a ton of starters this year. But this was a huge, huge win that should open eyes across the Centennial League. In addition to being the first Spartan win over Hayden in 13 years, it ended the Wildcats’ 10-game winning streak dating back to last season.
“We’re not surprised at all,” Gentz said. “We know they’re a good team, they’ve got good history. But we came in really confident in ourselves. We knew if we just played our hearts out and just were the aggressors from the bat, we’d be able to take ’em.”
Friday at Welch Stadium
Hayden (1-1, 1-1) 0 0 6 0 — 6
Emporia (2-0, 2-0) 6 16 0 6 — 28
First quarter
EMP — Kolmer 3 run (kick failed)
Second quarter
EMP — Gentz 37 run (Kolmer run)
EMP — Gentz 1 run (Thomsen pass from Gentz)
Third quarter
HAY — Steuber 9 run (kick failed)
Fourth quarter
EMP — Gentz 17 run (kick failed)
GAME STATISTICS
HAY EMP
First downs 14 18
Rushes-yards 39-183 55-290
Comp-Att-Int 7-16-2 3-4-0
Passing yards 71 48
Total yards 254 338
Fumbles-lost 6-4 3-3
Penalties-yards 1-5 6-35
Punts-Avg. 2-35.5 3-37.3
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — HAY: Banister 8-71, Steuber 12-57, Morrow 11-35, Engroff 4-17, Bohannon 4-3; EMP: Kolmer 28-115, Gentz 11-81, Lindquist 7-49, Loucks 5-36, Sheldon 3-8, A. Knight 1-1.
Passing — HAY: Morrow 7-16-2; EMP: Gentz 3-4-0.
Receiving — HAY: McGivern 2-34, Bohannon 2-15, Banister 2-14, Engroff 1-8; EMP: Sheldon 1-23, Lindquist 1-15, Loucks 1-10.