Maryville-The Hornet football team entered last Saturday’s NCAA Division II Playoff game in Maryville, Missouri looking to avenge their only loss of the season, a 41-14 defeat to Northwest Missouri State back in early September. Rushing for a total of -30 yards and turning the ball over three times, the Hornets suffered a similar defeat as the #1 Bearcats charged into the Quarterfinal Round with a 44-13 victory.
“We got beat by a better football team,” said ESU head football coach Garin Higgins in a post game interview. “We made some mistakes that you can’t make against a team like this and expect to win.”
A lost fumble put Emporia State in a hole early on, and by the end of the first quarter, the scoreboard read 17-0 in favor of the Bearcats.
“They’re a heck of a football team,” said senior linebacker Kole Schankie. “They execute everything well and they just played hard all day. We fought hard too, but they came out on top.”
Emporia State would get onto the scoreboard in the second quarter as redshirt-sophomore quarterback Braxton Marstall found redshirt-sophomore receiver Justin Brown for a 12-yard touchdown pass to cut the deficit to 17-6 with 12:28 remaining before halftime.
The Hornets were unable to keep any positive momentum as the Bearcats would drive down the field two more times in the quarter, extending the deficit to 31-6 on a long touchdown pass by Bearcat quarterback Randy Schmidt and a short scoring plunge by running back Kyle Zimmerman.
“Northwest just made a lot more plays than us today,” said senior defensive lineman Eddie Vinson. “You can see that in the result.”
One of the few highlights for the Hornets came in the closing moments of the first half as Marstall found junior receiver Louis Dailey with a 41-yard Hail Mary for a touchdown as the clock showed 0:00.
Emporia State, who finished the season with an 11-2 record, would do little to shorten the 31-13 gap after halftime, eventually falling to Bearcats by a score of 44-13.
Although disappointed in the defeat, there were not many long faces on the Hornet sideline as both players and coaches were encouraged by the progress they made in the 2016 season.
“For us to win 11 games straight in the MIAA? That’s nothing to hang our heads about,” Higgins said. “To lose five games in the last two years, four of them to the national champions, are you kidding me? I’m going to hold my head up high and I know these players are too.”
Emporia State has gone 22-5 in the last two seasons and have advanced to the playoffs in three of the last four years. The Hornets and Bearcats are the first two MIAA teams to win playoff games in back-to-back years since Pittsburg State did it in 2004 and 2005.
