September 12, 2015-In a game that was continued from Thursday, Emporia State outscored Central Missouri 21-10 on Saturday to post a 45-34 win and snap a 13 game losing streak to the Mules. Brent Wilson went 35 of 46 for 446 yards with five touchdowns in the win for Emporia State.
LONGEST HALF TIME EVER
The game began on Thursday and saw the two teams knotted at 24-24 when a severe thunderstorm moved in and forced the suspension of the game. The Mules had jumped out to a 14-3 lead with 2:09 left in the first quarter. The Hornets would then outscore the Mules 21-10, scoring on their final three possessions of the first half before the rains came in.
RESTART
After a delay of 41 hours and nine minutes the game restarted at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. The Mules, who had defered their choice to the second half, took the opening kickoff and went 85 yards in ten plays to take a 31-24 lead. The Hornets answered with an eight play, 80 yard drive capped by a 48 yard touchdown pass from Wilson to Justin Brown.
WHO BLINKED FIRST
After the Hornets tied the game at 31 with 8:25 left in the third, the Mules got down to the Emporia State 39 yard line before two of the biggest defense plays of the game. On second and six DeAndre Glover tackled Evan Campbell for a loss of two followed by a Josh Monteagudo 12 yard sack of Garret Fugate pushed the Mules back to their own 47 yard line and forced the only punt of Saturday's action.
FUMBLE-ITIS
After the punt the Hornet offense drove the ball down to the Mule two yard line. On second and goal from the two yard line Antonio Brown was stripped of the ball and Tevin Teamer picked it up and went 36 yards before Brent Wilson made a touchdown saving tackle at the UCM 39 yard line. Central then went 61 yards and was facing third and three form the Hornet five when Larenz Abston stripped Fugate and AJ West recovered the ball in the endzone for the Hornets with 14:32 left in the game.
KEY PLAY
Emporia State took their first lead of the game on a 13 play, 80 yard drive that saw them convert twice on third down and once on fourth down. On fourth and five at midfield with 12:39 left and the score tied at 31 Wilson found Kavaski Ervin for a seven yeard gain that kept the drive alive. Wilson capped the drive with a 14 yard touchdown to Morris Williams II for a 38-31 lead.
ANOTHER STOP
The Mules nearly answered on the next possession as they drove to the Hornet one yard line. Gabe Cleveland tackled Markel Smith for a loss of two on second down and Jason Tetuan sacked Fugate for a loss of eight on third down to hold Central to a 27 yard field goal.
ANOTHER BIG PLAY AND ANOTHER FOURTH DOWN
Emporia State took over with 5:26 remaining, protecting a 38-34 lead. After a pair of Wilson to Drake Smithton completions, Landon Nault rumbled 44 yards down to the UCM nine yard line. Antonio Brown gained three yards down to the six and after an incomplete pass Wilson connected with Mitchell Foote for a four yard gain down to the two yard line. Facing fourth and goal from the two with 2:51 left Wilson again found Foote this time for the two yard touchdown that gave Emporia State a 45-34 lead.
FINAL DEFENSIVE STAND
Central Missouri took over with 2:49 left and were facing fourth and three from their own 43 yard line. Fugate connected with Ian Toalson for a 20 yard completion down to the Hornet 37 yard line. On the next play Kole Schankie sacked Fugate for a loss of six and a holding penalty on second down pushed the Mules back to their own 47 yard line. On second and 26 Fugate found Jaylen Zachery for a 20 yard gain before throwing an incompletion on third and six. Monteagudo stopped Clayton Cooper after a four yard reception to turn the ball over on downs to the Hornets with 1:22 left. A 13 yard run by Nault gave the Hornets a first down and they were then able to run out the clock in victory formation.
THE NUMBERS
The two teams combined for 1,170 yards of total offense with the Hornets accumulating 605 total yards on 88 plays.
Wilson was 35 of 46 for 446 yards and five touchdowns for the Hornets and connected with nine different receivers. Justin Brown had seven receptions for 130 yards and two touchdowns, Mitchell Foote had eight catches for 94 yards and a touchdown while Kavaski Ervin went for 100 yards on seven catches with a touchdown.
It was the 15th time Emporia State has had two players with at least 100 yards receiving since joining the MIAA in 1991 and the first time since Austin Willis (178) and Reese Richards (104) did it against Central Missouri last year.
Antonio Brown ended the game with 88 yards on 21 carries with a touchdown while Landon Nault had 65 yards on nine carries.
The win snapped a 13 game losing streak to the Mules dating back to the 1999 season.
WILSON'S NUMBERS
Quarterback Brent Wilson became the fourth Hornet quarterback with at least 5,000 yards passing and now has 5,093 yards. He passed Pete Jelovic to move into fourth place on the Emporia State career total offense chart and now has 5,767 yards. His 52 touchdown passes are second all-time to Tyler Eckenrode's 60 TDs from 2009-12.
In two games against Central Missouri, Wilson is 75 of 108 for 935 yards with eight touchdowns.
Through the first two games of 2015 Wilson is completing 73.2% of his passes (60 of 82) for 776 yards and eight touchdowns for an efficiency rating of 180.0.
UP NEXT
The Hornets travel to Central Oklahoma on Saturday, September 19 to take on the Bronchos. Kick-off from Wantland Stadium in Edmond, Okla, is set for 2:00 p.m.
