The gist
- Emporia State 34, Missouri Western 22. Hornets are 5-0, ranked No. 10 nationally, and sitting alone at the top of the MIAA.
- Turnover margin: +3. Two Isaiah Tate interceptions and a Rickie Dunn fumble bailed out a defense that got moved all day.
- 494 passing yards allowed. The “top pass defense in the MIAA” line from the pregame notes aged about as well as a gallon of milk in July.
- Third quarter: 3-0 Hornets, 38 total yards for Missouri Western. That is where the game actually got won.
34-22, 5-0, and outgained by more than 100 yards
No. 10 Emporia State is 5-0. The scoreboard said 34-22. The stat sheet said something louder: Missouri Western outgained the Hornets 610 to 496, picked up 34 first downs to our 28, and ran six more minutes of clock. Isaiah Tate threw for 494 yards. Four hundred ninety-four. In a game our side won by 12.
What saved it was the turnover margin and the third quarter. Jamison Sarver went 32-of-49 for 390 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. Camden Crooks banged in a 19-yard touchdown run on the opening series and finished with 17 carries for 83 yards. Ondraye Beasley caught two balls and turned one of them into a 45-yard touchdown bomb. Malik O’Atis caught four for 51 and a 3-yard score. Trenden Collins led the receivers at 8 for 95. Brandon McCary went 2-for-2 on field goals.
Jordyn Harris picked Tate off in the second quarter to set up a McCary field goal. Chance Clements recovered a Rickie Dunn fumble at the ESU 22 to end a drive that looked a lot like a Griffon touchdown. Christopher Johnson II iced it with a fourth-quarter pick inside the 20. Three takeaways, zero given up.
How it happened, quarter by quarter
First quarter (14-12 Hornets). It was a track meet. Crooks went 19 yards for a score four plays in. Latrell Armstrong answered twice with field goals from 23 and 28. Sarver hit Beasley on the 45-yard touchdown. Then Tate dropped a 57-yard dime to Crew Myers, and we were suddenly in a 14-12 game with both offenses averaging better than 10 yards a play. Red flag.
Second quarter (10-3 Hornets). Sarver and O’Atis connected for the 3-yard touchdown. McCary added a 34-yarder after the Harris interception. Armstrong got three back the other way. Half: 24-15. Missouri Western had already racked up 376 total yards.
Third quarter (3-0 Hornets). This is where it got won. The Griffons ran 22 plays and gained 38 yards. Three straight MWS punts, including a drive that lost 13 yards after an Eric Stevenson sack. ESU ground out a 12-play, 47-yard drive that ended in a McCary 30-yard field goal. 27-15.
Fourth quarter (7-7). Victor Chionuma punched one in from the 1 to make it 34-15. Then Missouri Western put up 196 yards and a Tate-to-Emmanuel Ellison 31-yard touchdown in a quarter they also had to burn clock in. Johnson’s pick at the ESU 19 ended it.
Landon Boss had a sack, four solo tackles for loss, and nine total stops. Aidan Hicks led the team with 11 tackles. Tyler Schultze and Elias Jones each posted three pass breakups — the most reassuring stat on the sheet given what Tate did everywhere else. Boss, by the way, keeps being Boss, and Schultze is a Campbell Trophy semifinalist for a reason.
| Team stats | ESU | MWS |
|---|---|---|
| Total yards | 496 | 610 |
| First downs | 28 | 34 |
| Passing yards | 390 | 494 |
| Yards per play | 6.44 | 7.01 |
| Turnovers lost | 0 | 3 |
| Third downs | 3-13 | 6-16 |
| Time of possession | 25:45 | 34:15 |
What people are saying
MIAA fans on d2football.com weren’t buying this one as a statement. One poster called it “winning on points, not domination” and flagged UCO on Oct. 17 as the game that tells the real story. Another cautioned that if the Hornets win the next two, we’re 4-0 against the four worst teams in the conference. The homer in me wants to argue; the box score makes it hard.
The official athletics recap noted this was just the second time all season Missouri Western was held under 30. True. It is also the first time in five games we got outgained by better than a hundred yards. Both are the story.
Our take
Hot take: this is the loudest 5-0 we have ever been. Loud as in sirens, not loud as in parade. We are winning because we don’t turn it over and because our offense is efficient enough to cash in when the defense catches a break. That is a real formula. It is also an incredibly thin one.
The pass defense was advertised as the best in the MIAA. The pass defense gave up 494 yards and let a quarterback complete passes to four different receivers for 51 or more. Three pass interference flags came out of our own secondary. Yes, Tate also threw two picks, and yes, the pass rush produced two sacks and had him uncomfortable in the third quarter. If that line holds against UCO, we lose by three scores.
5-0 is 5-0. It’s also four wins over teams that look a lot like us, and one over a Pitt State we don’t fully trust yet.
Credit where it’s owed: Boss keeps being Boss, Schultze and Jones showed up in coverage, Clements turned a lost yard into a game-swinging turnover, and McCary did not miss. The offensive line gave Sarver a clean enough pocket to throw it 49 times. We don’t grab this one 34-22 if any of those break the other way. The Nebraska-Kearney recap had the defense carrying the day in a 19-9 slog. This week the defense needed carrying. That is a different kind of 5-0 than the one through four weeks.
Next up
Missouri Southern on the road on Oct. 10. Then UCO at home on Oct. 17 — and that is the one the forum is already pointing at. We’ll have more on the Lions mid-week; the line to carry forward is this: if the pass defense allows another 450-plus yards against a passing offense that is actually good, this starts getting hard. Not “might.” Will.
Enjoy 5-0 on the ride home. And if you’d rather back your reads than just shout them, that’s literally the game.