God tried to stop the fight and call it a technical knockout. But the rules prohibited it.
Washburn Rural, its nose bleeding and both eyes swelling, had been sent to the canvas countless times by the punishing jabs, hooks and crosses of Emporia’s versatile running game and stout defense. The lightning that compelled officials to halt the game with 47.2 seconds left in the third quarter was really just the product of a higher ringside official who saw a mismatch that, with another quarter left to play, might only get bloodier.
But thanks to national and Kansas State High School Activities Association rules, the game would either be completed Friday night, or it would be completed today. So just after 11 p.m. Friday, the Spartans finally got to raise their arm in victory.
Mark Kolmer pummeled Rural into the ropes with 140 yards in 25 carries and a touchdown, Brandon Gentz added 101 yards and two rushing TDs and the EHS defense suffocated the Junior Blues in a 35-7 win that lifted Emporia to 3-1 on the year.
“We honestly expect this from ourselves, and we know what we’re capable of doing,” said halfback Jacob Loucks, who added 88 rushing yards and a touchdown of his own to the Spartan running game, which finished with 355 yards on the ground. “So I mean, it really wasn’t expected, but we knew we had a job to do, and we had to come out and do it, make sure we got ourselves a win.”
Emporia’s running attack started relatively slowly, although its methodical, 13-play second drive ended with a two-yard TD run by Cody Lindquist. But on its third drive, EHS started finding space on the outside and generating more big running plays. Kolmer started the drive from the EHS 13 with a 13-yard run, and three straight runs of 13, 11 and 14 yards by Jacob Loucks, Cody Lindquist and Kolmer put Emporia at Rural’s 20. Two plays later, Kolmer got to the left side and sprinted to the corner of the end zone to give the Spartans a 12-7 lead.
The success in the running game opened up a huge play-action pass that gave Emporia a comfortable 20-7 lead just before halftime. Gentz faked to Kolmer on 2nd-and-10 from the Emporia 49, then lobbed a throw downfield to a wide-open Collin Thomsen on the right side. Thomsen was finally run down at the 10-yard line, setting up a 10-yard scoring run by Gentz with just 59 seconds left in the half.
“We’ve been working on that play for quite awhile,” Gentz said. “That’s our play-action pass where we just fake that option that we run a lot, and we knew the safeties would bite down, and that Collin would be wide open.”
The Spartans wasted no time widening their lead out of the half. Runs of 19 yards by Gentz and 27 by Loucks put them at Rural’s 29, and Gentz finished it off with a tremendous run in which he rolled to the right side, avoided a tackle, then cut back through the middle, blazing to the end zone. He added a 2-point pass to Kolmer at the back of the end zone to make it 28-7.
Emporia’s defense, for the most part, didn’t do anything fancy against the Junior Blues’ shotgun offense — it just kept stuffing Rural running back Brandon Dozier and forcing the Blues into three-and-outs. But when Spartan linebacker Brock Sheldon hit L.A. Purnell on a third-quarter pass reception in the flat to force a fumble, Adam D’Angelo fell on the loose ball at Rural’s 34. Loucks immediately followed with a scoring run on the left side on which he stumbled, righted himself, then got a solid downfield block from Jared Parks to free him for the TD. Kolmer’s extra point made it 35-7.
Rain began falling steadily during the third quarter, and with less than a minute remaining in the period and lightning in their view, the officials sent the teams to the locker room. After a series of delays that totaled two hours, and speculation that the game might be resumed today, it instead got back under way at about 10:45 p.m. Both teams fumbled on their opening offensive plays out of the delay.
“That’s terrible — that’s just a terrible feeling,” Lowe said of the delay. “You can’t ask ’em to sit in there for that long and then try to come out and be sharp. Especially with the score like it was. It wasn’t like it was close, and it’s just natural to try to relax, let up.”
After a clock-burning EHS drive was stopped at Rural’s 4-yard line, the game ended with little fanfare — but with a surprising number of Spartan fans still around for the traditional team postgame singing.
Emporia dominated so thoroughly that it was easy to forget that Rural (3-1) had quickly taken the game’s first lead just 2 1/2 minutes in, when quarterback Tyler Kelly found speedy 6-foot-4 receiver Austin Werner over the middle for a 65-yard catch-and-run. Minus that play, the Spartans allowed Hayden just 139 yards of offense.
“The kids just executed,” Lowe said. “They played their assignments and ran to the football. I thought they hit hard. We’ve just gotta keep being physical.”
Friday at Welch Stadium
Emporia 35, Washburn Rural 7
Washburn Rural 7 0 0 0 — 7
Emporia High 6 14 15 0 — 35
First quarter
WR — Werner 65 pass from Kelly (Meenen kick)
EMP — Lindquist 2 run (kick failed)
Second quarter
EMP — Kolmer 13 run (run failed)
EMP — Gentz 10 run (Kolmer run)
Third quarter
EMP — Gentz 29 run (Kolmer pass from Gentz)
EMP — Loucks 34 run (Kolmer kick)
GAME STATISTICS
WR EMP
First downs 6 16
Rushes-yards 27-70 58-355
Comp-Att-Int 10-20-1 3-5-0
Passing yards 134 66
Total yards 204 421
Fumbles-lost 3-2 1-1
Penalties-yards 2-20 2-10
Punts-avg. 6-28.7 1-37.0
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — WR: Dozier 14-60, Kelly 10-7, Purnell 3-3; EMP: Kolmer 25-140, Gentz 14-101, Loucks 8-88, Lindquist 5-23, A. Knight 3-10, Sheldon 2-(minus-2), Pearson 1-(minus-5).
Passing — WR: Kelly 10-20-1; EMP: Gentz 3-5-0, Sheldong 0-1-0.
Receiving — WR: Werner 2-95, Vobach 3-18, Dozier 2-16, Purnell 3-4; EMP: Thomsen 1-41, Pearson 1-15, Loucks 1-10.
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Posted by mikeandsharonwilliams (anonymous) on September 26, 2009 at 8:18 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The Spartan's were awesome last night ... congrats to all the players and coaches who work so hard ... great game to watch!
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