The gist
- Final: Emporia State 58, Central Missouri 38. The Hornets are 8-0 after their Homecoming night at Welch Stadium — the first MIAA football game ever on SI-TV — and they scored on offense, defense and special teams.
- Turning point: a 31-point third quarter. Three Jamison Sarver touchdown throws, a 91-yard Corey Turner II kickoff return and a Brandon McCary field goal turned a 24-21 halftime nail-biter into a laugher.
- Our number: plus-four turnover margin. Five takeaways — four interceptions and a fumble recovery — against one giveaway.
- Their number: 627 total yards for Central Missouri, 572 of them through the air. This defense won the day without really stopping anybody.
The recap
Central Missouri came in with a quarterback who throws it 60-plus times a game, and they did exactly what the tape said they would: 93 plays, 70 drop-backs for Jordan Pachot, 29 first downs, 33:02 of possession. The Hornets had the ball-hawking defense that has shown up in every box score this fall. On Saturday night, 58-38, the ball-hawkers won.
UCM scored on three of their first four possessions and led 14-3 before Emporia State ground out an 18-play, 75-yard answer that ended with Victor Chionuma plunging in from the 1. Hornets 10, Mules 14 after one.
Then came the hinge. On a 2nd-and-8 from the ESU 10 just before the half, Pachot's middle throw landed in Clem McCullough's hands and he took it the distance. One week after the four-takeaway win over Central Oklahoma, this defense is still scoring points nobody schemed up. ESU went into the break up 24-21.
The third quarter was 31-10 Hornets. Turner II took the opening kickoff 91 yards to the house. Sarver found Ethan Schultze for a 47-yarder, then Trenden Collins for 26, then Vudrico Roberson for 38. McCary dropped in a 39-yarder in between. By the time Sarver hit Roberson to make it 55-31, the Welch Stadium crowd was already looking at Halloween.
| Category | ESU | UCM |
|---|---|---|
| First downs | 21 | 29 |
| Plays-yards | 68-460 | 93-627 |
| Rushing yards | 156 | 55 |
| Passing yards | 304 | 572 |
| Third downs | 6-14 | 10-19 |
| Time of possession | 26:58 | 33:02 |
| Turnovers | 1 | 5 |
| Penalties-yards | 6-69 | 10-79 |
Sarver finished 28-of-40 for 304 and four scores with one pick. Schultze had 100 and two touchdowns. McCary went 3-for-3 on field goals and perfect on PATs. On the ground, Charles Morgan broke a 41-yarder and Ondraye Beasley a 45-yarder, part of 156 rushing yards on just 28 carries. On defense, McCullough had two interceptions. Landon Boss — who went into the week listed as a game-time decision — suited up and finished with eight tackles, a tackle for loss, an interception and the fumble recovery. Devon Owen and Carlos Strong Jr. had the sacks.
What people are saying
Emporia State's own athletics-site recap led with the three-phase line — offense, defense, special teams — and it holds up: a 91-yard kick return touchdown, a pick-six, 304 passing yards, 156 rushing. On the forum side, MIAA fans on d2football.com had spent the week asking whether UCM's pass rush could rattle Sarver, and whether Pachot would “fillet the back end” of ESU's defense if the pressure never got there. The answers, in order: no, and sort of — Pachot threw for 521 himself, and the back end still won the day because he threw it to the wrong color jersey four times.
One more piece of credit from the week prior: Jake Tucker was the D2Football.com National Defensive Player of the Week after his first career start against UCO. Boss keeps piling up MIAA Defensive Player of the Week honors. The depth on this defense is its own story at this point.
Our take
Hot take: this is not the same defense that held Central Oklahoma to 16 last week. That one was a mugging. Saturday was something else entirely — a defense that got out-yarded by 167, out-first-downed by eight, and surrendered 8.2 yards an attempt in the air, but kept trading touchdowns for takeaways until the arithmetic ran out. Both versions win. They do not win the same way, and the second version has a shorter shelf life.
Emporia State is 8-0 because this defense keeps finding the football, not because it keeps anybody out of the end zone.
Second take: give the offense its due. Three different receivers caught touchdowns, two different backs broke 40-plus-yard runs, and Sarver's 28-of-40, 304, four TDs is the ceiling game we have been waiting on. All that ankle chatter in the forum this week? File it. The man threw it 40 times and dropped balls in from 47, 38, 26 and 19.
Third take, and this is the one that stings on a 20-point win: the pass defense cannot do this at Northwest Missouri next Saturday. 572 passing yards is not a weird-matchup outlier — UCM had 29 first downs. Takeaways papered over it. The Bearcats are not going to force the throws Pachot forced, and even if they do, you are not going to pick them off four times in a row twice in a row.
Next up
At Northwest Missouri on Oct. 31, Halloween night in Maryville, with the top of the MIAA on the line and the top seed in Super Region 3 almost certainly going with it. The Bearcats will be the best team ESU has seen all season, and ESU will be the best team the Bearcats have seen all season. Our line, and feel free to grade us on it next week: if the Hornets allow 500-plus passing yards and don't win the turnover column by at least three again, this is where the undefeated run ends.
If you would rather back your read on this one than just shout it, that is literally the game.