SALINA — Mix talent and the seizing of opportunity like Emporia High did on Friday night — like the Spartans have done almost all season long — and there’s a good chance you’ll end up with a district championship.
A wild and intense fourth quarter swung the Spartans’ way, with EHS generating three enormous scoring plays — the last a 77-yard kickoff return touchdown by Cody Lindquist with 2:23 to go — and a backbreaking fumble recovery by Collin Thomsen to edge Salina South 33-27 at Salina Stadium. The victory gave the Spartans the Class 5A District 5 championship with a 3-0 run through the district, a 7-2 regular season mark, and a home playoff game next Friday.
“That’s two weeks in a row,” said EHS coach Bill Lowe, referring to last week’s nearly-as-wild 32-28 win over Salina Central. “I don’t know if I can handle that. ... But you know what? I’ve got a lot of faith in our kids, and the good Lord, and our coaching staff. It’s just, when you have a great coaching staff and great kids, it makes it really easy on you.”
Lindquist’s game-winning return came thanks in part to a timely unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the end zone following a 2-point conversion by South quarterback Jason Seibel. The conversion, which followed Seibel’s nine-yard TD run with just 2:36 left, made it 27-27 — but the penalty pushed South back to the 25-yard line for the ensuing kick. Lindquist took the kick, got past the first line of defenders and cut to the sideline, reaching the left corner of the end zone.
“I wanted to get some good yardage for the offense,” Lindquist said. “But there was a big hole in the middle, the wedge opened up, they were making blocks, and I just saw that and turned on the speed and hit it up.”
With the 33-27 lead, Emporia didn’t trust its shaky placekicking game, and the Spartans attempted to go for two, but running back Mark Kolmer was stopped short of the end zone. That left Salina South — which had burned Emporia with the speedy Seibel’s running ability the entire second half — two-and-a-half minutes to drive for the win.
A late-hit call on the Spartans on the next kickoff gave the Cougars the ball at Emporia’s 48, which looked as if it could be costly. But when Seibel completed to Travis Dolan along the right sideline for an apparent first down, Jacob Loucks made contact with Dolan and popped the ball loose. Thomsen fell on the ball at the 30 with 1:49 to go, and South, with just one timeout left, was effectively toast.
Those two plays may have been what cinched the victory, but on par with them in importance were a pair of jaw-dropping offensive plays earlier in the quarter. First, quarterback Bryce Childs completed a third-and-9 dump pass over the middle to Loucks, who got free of his defender, then broke a tackle and turned it into a 72-yard catch-and-run to make it 21-19 with 11:03 left to go. Then Childs, starting at quarterback in place of the injured Brandon Gentz, found running room on a bootleg play to the right side, bursting into the secondary and breaking two tackles downfield to finish off a 57-yard TD run and make it 27-19.
“We just ran a boot to the right,” Childs said. “It was a really good fake; that was one of our best plays all night. We booted out of it, I just saw a hole, I saw two blockers split, so I just took off. And once I got down near the end zone, I wasn’t gonna let ’em hold me out. I had to get in there.”
On the first drive of the game, the Spartans looked as if they were going three-and-out, but on fourth-and-9 from South’s 45, they pulled out a rare show of trickery. Brock Sheldon sprinted 34 yards on a fake punt play to the Cougars’ 11, and the Spartans gave to Kolmer four times to get in the end zone, the last run from two yards out. Kolmer missed the extra point to keep the score 6-0.
On 2nd-and-11 from the Spartan 25 midway through the second quarter, Kolmer found a gigantic open space up the middle and ran 39 yards. Childs hit Loucks out of the backfield on a well-thrown touch pass later on the drive, a 13-yard completion that got the Spartans to South’s 1 and set up a sneak by Childs for a score. The 2-point run by Kolmer gave Emporia a 14-6 lead with 2:38 to go in the half.
The Cougars (5-4) responded with a 23-yard scoring run by Cody Busby to pull within one before the half, then added an 11-yard pass from Seibel to Trent Forrester on the first drive of the second half to take a 19-14 lead.
“It was tough, and it was just really nerve-wracking,” Loucks said of the fourth quarter. “But we knew from the get-go that we were gonna win that game, regardless of what happened. We knew we had the team, we knew we would fight and we would do whatever it takes to win.”
Kolmer finished with 105 yards on 21 carries for the Spartans.
How much has Emporia surpassed expectations this year? Lowe admitted that back at the beginning of the year, he probably wouldn’t have thought that the Spartans would now be sitting at 7-2 with a district title in their possession.
“And play without our starting quarterback? I doubt it,” Lowe said. “But you know what? We really had a special group of kids early this year, just the way they were, and the way they bonded together. And don’t count ’em out — they’re a great group.”
Friday at Salina Stadium
Emporia 6 8 0 19 — 33
Salina South 0 13 6 8 — 27
First quarter
EMP — Kolmer 2 run (kick failed
Second quarter
SS — Busby 1 run (kick failed)
EMP — Childs 1 run (Kolmer run)
SS — Busby 23 run (Harmon kick)
Third quarter
SS — Forrester 11 pass from Seibel (kick blocked)
Fourth quarter
EMP — Loucks 72 pass from Childs (Kolmer kick)
EMP — Childs 57 run (kick failed)
SS — Seibel 9 run (Seibel run)
EHS — Lindquist 77 kick return (run failed)
GAME STATISTICS
EMP SS
First downs 11 16
Rushes-yards 44-252 47-289
Comp.-Att.-Int. 4-6-0 7-11-1
Passing yards 102 106
Total yards 354 395
Fumbles-lost 0-0 3-3
Penalties-yards 4-30 6-53
Punts-Avg. 1-33.0 0-0
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — EMP: Kolmer 21-105, Childs 14-91, Loucks 5-22, Sheldon 2-35, Lindquist 2-(minus-1); SS: Seibel 19-162, Busby 14-78, Lewis 13-44, Taylor 1-5.
Passing — EMP: Childs 4-6-0 102; SS: Seibel 7-11-1 106.
Receiving — EMP : Loucks 2-85, Lindquist 2-17; SS: Forrester 2-33, Dolan 2-31, Busby 0-4, Krier 2-38.
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Posted by scrappygirl (anonymous) on October 31, 2009 at 7:45 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Amazing Game...Way to go boys!!!!
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