The gist
- Hornets 35, Missouri Southern 21 on the road. Jamison Sarver completed 38 of 44 for 312 yards and four touchdowns, no interceptions.
- 6-0, best start since 2015. The record is pristine. The MIAA message boards still aren't crowning anybody.
- Landon Boss scoop-and-score. Sack, strip, recovery in the end zone, six points. The only turnover of the day was ours.
- 179 for, 112 against through six. We beat you by two scores, not four. That's six weeks of pattern now.
Final line: ESU 35, Mo. Southern 21. The Hornets outgained the Lions 461 to 325, won yards per play 6.07 to 4.45, and did it despite losing time of possession by nearly six minutes. If you grade for style points, you have questions. If you grade for sixes in the record column, this one goes in.
How it unfolded
First quarter. ESU opened with an eight-play touchdown drive, Sarver 14 yards to Malik O'Atis to cap it. Missouri Southern answered on the kick: David Bethune returned Jordan Cartwright's kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown. Tied 7-7 after fifteen minutes.
Second quarter. This is the one we won twice. Sarver found Trenden Collins for an eight-yard touchdown to cap a four-play, 83-yard drive. Then came the signature play: Landon Boss sacked Tillman Martin for an eight-yard loss, jarred the ball loose, and fell on it in the end zone. 21-7 at the half.
Third quarter. The one we need to talk about. Missouri Southern's first drive out of the half went 11 plays and 65 yards — Martin to Jackson Marrs for 26 on a 3rd-and-16 at the ESU 26, which is the kind of conversion that happens to a defense having a bad quarter. Later, with MSS at the ESU 3 on 4th-and-2, Martin found Isaiah Green for the score. In between, Sarver dropped a 15-yard strike to Ethan Schultze. 28-21, and the Lions had cut it to one score with a quarter to go.
Fourth quarter. The answer. ESU put together a 13-play, 79-yard drive that burned nearly four minutes and ended with Schultze's second touchdown of the game, a three-yard catch on 2nd-and-3. 35-21. Missouri Southern never got the deficit back to one score, and the defense that gave up fourteen in the third gave up zero in the fourth.
The numbers that matter
| ESU | MSS | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 35 | 21 |
| First downs | 25 | 23 |
| Total yards | 461 | 325 |
| Yards per play | 6.07 | 4.45 |
| Rushing yards | 149 | 60 |
| Passing yards | 312 | 265 |
| Third-down conv. | 7-14 | 4-14 |
| Fourth-down conv. | 0-3 | 3-5 |
| Turnovers | 0 | 1 |
| Penalties | 7-59 | 5-42 |
| Time of possession | 26:57 | 32:45 |
Sarver's day was 38 of 44 for 312 yards and four touchdowns to three different receivers, no interceptions. Ethan Schultze caught 11 balls for 78 yards and both of his scores, Malik O'Atis went for 89 and the opener, Trenden Collins broke a 56-yarder in his five-catch night. On the ground, Camden Crooks (14 for 88) and Victor Chionuma (13 for 62) did the carrying.
Defensively, Boss had the sack and the touchdown; Gabe Booker added a sack and a hurry. Elias Jones went for eight tackles with six solo, Chance Clements led the group with nine, and Carson Sippel and Tyler Schultze each broke up two balls in the back end. One number stings: Missouri Southern converted three of five fourth downs, including the one at the goal line that bought them the quarter. Hold the Lions to 4-of-14 on third down and then let them stay on the field three times out of five on fourth, and the Q3 fourteen is exactly where it comes from.
What people are saying
MIAA fans on d2football.com are not in a hurry to crown anybody. The clearest read came from a thread the week of this game: “Winning on points, not domination. UCO on Oct 17 tells the real story.” That sentiment is doing the heavy lifting in the room — another poster called ESU “steady,” a third admitted he never bought the idea that the Hornets were head and shoulders above the rest. These are Hornets fans in a Hornets thread, hedging on a 6-0 team of their own. That is MIAA for you.
For the official version, the esuhornets.com recap leads with the 2015 note — this is the first time the program has opened a season 6-0 in eleven years.
Our take
Last week we called the Missouri Western win a grind. This one is not a grind. 38 of 44, 6.07 yards per play, 461 to 325, four touchdowns through the air to three different guys. That is an offense that has figured something out.
Here's our read: the message-board skepticism keeps citing style points. Style points aren't the problem. The problem is that the one quarter per game that goes sideways on this defense is going to cost us against someone who can turn it into four. We've gotten away with it against a schedule that keeps running out of fourth-quarter oxygen. The hat is on Boss and the pass rush making people pay for staying on the field a snap too long, and that works until it doesn't.
Hot take: Boss has four MIAA Defensive Player of the Week awards in five games, and the national conversation about D-II defensive players still doesn't start with his name. It should.
Six games, six wins, and the room is still arguing about whether we're real. The record isn't.
Next up
Central Oklahoma next, Oct. 17. The Bronchos are the game the forum keeps pointing to as the one that will settle whether 6-0 means what we think it means. Fair enough. If this defense gives up another third-quarter fourteen to a team that can finish, that is the loss these folks have been waiting for. If the offense keeps completing 86% of its passes, nobody in the MIAA keeps up.
Our marker for the week: Central Oklahoma under 20 points. Hit it and the schedule skeptics have less to work with. Give up 28-plus and the thread writes itself. We'll say what we think on the other side of it — and if you'd rather back your reads than just shout them, that's literally the game.