The gist
- Final: Emporia State 19, Nebraska-Kearney 9. #17 ESU moves to 4-0, 2-0 in the MIAA, on Family + Friends Day at Welch Stadium.
- Zero points after halftime. The Hornets managed 73 yards on 25 plays and four first downs in the second half. All 19 points were on the board with 9:22 left in the second quarter.
- The defense never gave up a touchdown. Kearney's nine points were three field goals, and six of those nine came directly off Emporia State turnovers.
- Landon Boss scored twice in the first quarter — a fumble return and a 1-yard run — and a linebacker finished as the team's leading scorer.
- 110 scored, 69 allowed through four games. That is 17.3 a night on defense. It is also an offense that just got shut out for 39 straight minutes at home.
First, grading ourselves
Last week's recap left a marker on the table: if Emporia State gave up more than 20 to Nebraska-Kearney, we would start writing that the defense was getting figured out. They gave up nine. No touchdowns. The defense passed, and it was not close.
So the marker held. The problem is that it was the wrong side of the ball to be worried about.
First quarter: 16-0 and it looked over
Emporia State took the opening kickoff and went 58 yards in 11 plays, leaning on Camden Crooks, before stalling at the Kearney 17. Brandon McCary hit from 34 for a 3-0 lead.
Then the play of the day. On third-and-6, Kearney's Devin Tate completed a pass to Ryker Evans near midfield, the ball came out, and Landon Boss scooped it and took it to the end zone. McCary's kick made it 10-0.
Kearney went three-and-out, and Malik O'Atis brought the punt back 35 yards to the Kearney 43. Jamison Sarver found Ty Walls for 23, Crooks ripped off 19 down to the 1, and two plays later the Hornets handed the ball to their linebacker. Boss punched it in. The two-point try failed, and it was 16-0 with the first quarter not yet finished.
The first crack came right after. Sarver was intercepted by Carson Murphy on third-and-2 from his own 25, and Kearney took over at the ESU 40. The defense actually pushed them backward a yard. It did not matter, because Kaden Kiernan lined up from 59 yards and drilled it. 16-3.
Crooks answered with a 41-yard run on the next snap, but that drive died on downs at the Kearney 28. Remember that one.
Second quarter: the red zone turns into a wall
A 12-play, 50-yard drive ate 4:36 and reached the Kearney 6. First-and-goal from the 6 then went backward: a 1-yard loss, an incompletion, a 6-yard loss on third down, and McCary kicking from 30. That made it 19-3 at the 9:22 mark, and it was the last time Emporia State scored.
Kearney answered with its best drive of the half, 67 yards in eight plays, and the ESU defense stood up at its own 8. Kiernan from 26, 19-6. The Hornets were flagged five times in the quarter, including three false starts and a delay of game on fourth down. Kearney's last possession of the half died on downs at its own 48 with four seconds left.
Halftime math: four trips inside the Kearney 30, one touchdown. The other three produced six points. Finish those drives and this is a blowout.
Second half: neither offense showed up, and ours was worse
Kearney took the second-half kickoff and held the ball for 14 plays and 7:09. Kiernan missed from 44. Emporia State went three-and-out. For the entire third quarter the Hornets had the ball for 1 minute, 35 seconds and ran eight plays.
Then the second gift. O'Atis lost the ball on a punt return and Kearney recovered at the ESU 23. The defense held again, at its own 8 again, and Kiernan hit from 25. 19-9.
The fourth quarter was seven straight punts. Jordan Cartwright pinned Kearney at its own 1 and dropped three of his six punts inside the 20. Twice in the fourth, Sarver completions were wiped off the board by flags — ineligible man downfield, then offensive pass interference. Cord Coffee and Christian Westbrooks each sacked backup quarterback Gunner McElroy late, and the clock finally ran out.
| Team stats | UNK | ESU |
|---|---|---|
| Total yards | 274 | 280 |
| Rushing | 42-136 | 30-140 |
| Passing (C-A-I) | 16-30-0 | 20-33-1 |
| First downs | 15 | 16 |
| Third downs | 3-16 | 4-14 |
| Turnovers | 1 | 2 |
| Penalties | 9-105 | 9-60 |
| Possession | 35:01 | 24:59 |
Who did what
Crooks was the offense: 19 carries for 126 yards, a 41-yard long, plus three catches. Sarver went 20-of-33 for 140 yards with no touchdowns and the interception. Ethan Schultze led the receivers with five catches for 35.
On defense, Gabe Roland led everyone with 10 tackles. Clem McCullough, Boss and Aidan Hicks had eight apiece, and Gabe Booker added seven. And the number we circled all week: Isaiah Harris, who ran for 270 yards and four touchdowns in Kearney's 34-20 win a year ago, carried 12 times for 26 yards. Kearney went 3-of-16 on third down.
What people are saying
The argument on the MIAA boards all week was about the resume, not the record. The skeptics' case: Emporia State's first three wins came against teams that were a combined 2-7, and the Pittsburg State name was doing a lot of the work. The Hornet side's answer was that you can only beat the ranked team in front of you, and that the schedule would settle it soon enough.
Saturday gave both camps something. A top-20 team that holds an opponent without a touchdown is a real defense. A top-20 team that gets outgained in the second half by an 0-2 club at home is going to hear about it, and should. The Emporia State game notes had the Hornets averaging 410.7 yards a game coming in. They finished with 280.
Our take
Start with the big picture, because it is the true one: this team is gaining momentum. Go back through the stream. A 36-30 shootout at Minot State. A 21-10 rock fight at #10 Pittsburg State. A second-half shutout of #20 Michigan Tech. Now a game where the offense went missing for 39 minutes and the Hornets still won by ten without allowing a touchdown. Four different kinds of wins in four weeks. Teams that can win ugly are the ones that become a terror in the MIAA, and beyond it, in November.
But that second half was not it. Not for a team with those ambitions. The season preview called this a prove-it year, and the honest grade on Saturday is that the defense proved it again and the offense did not. 4-0 is the floor this group has built. It is not the ceiling, and the only way to find the ceiling is to keep growing and keep going.
Here's our read on the opponent: be honest about them. Kearney is 0-3, and it is also a team that lost its opener on a last-second field goal, beat this same Emporia State program 34-20 a year ago, and came in off a bye with two weeks to prepare. Their kicker made a 59-yarder. Their punter averaged 45.1. Their defense adjusted after 16-0 and pitched a 39-minute shutout. That is not a bad football team. That is a team that cannot score touchdowns.
The penalty story needs the full number, because the box score does not flatter the easy version. Kearney was flagged nine times for 105 yards, worse than ESU's nine for 60. The difference is the type. Kearney's were aggressive: three face masks, two roughing-the-passers. Emporia State's were self-inflicted: six false starts, a delay of game on fourth down, and two fourth-quarter completions erased by flags on the offense. One kind of penalty is a team playing too hard. The other is a team not locked in at home. That is a discipline conversation for the bye week, not a talent one.
This defense is carrying a team playing its backup quarterback to 4-0. At some point the offense has to pay that back.
Hot take: the red zone is the actual problem, not the second half. Three of the four first-half trips inside the Kearney 30 ended without a touchdown and produced six points total, including a first-and-goal from the 6 that lost seven yards. Convert two of those and nobody writes a word about the second half. A team that settles for field goals against Kearney will be settling for losses against Northwest Missouri and Central Missouri.
Falsifiable marker for next time: if Emporia State commits more than five pre-snap penalties against Missouri Western on Oct. 3, coming off a bye with two weeks to fix exactly that, then it is not a one-week problem and we will say so. Grade it here.
Next up
No game on Sept. 26. Emporia State returns Oct. 3 against Missouri Western, 1:00 p.m. at Welch Stadium in Emporia. With the win, the all-time series with Nebraska-Kearney is level at 15-15, and Garin Higgins is 10-4 against the Lopers.
Four and oh is four and oh, and we will take every one of them. The momentum is real. So is the homework — and if you'd rather back your reads than just shout them from the west stands, that is literally the game.