#24 Emporia State football falls at #16 Central Missouri

October 21, 2023-In a game that saw 1,432 yards of total offense, #24 Emporia State came out on the wrong side of a 77-27 loss to #16 Central Missouri on Saturday afternoon in Warrensburg, Mo.
 
The Mules scored on their opening drive and Emporia State would punt after five plays on their first drive.  The two teams then combined to score on seven straight drives as the Hornets trailed 28-20 at the end of the first quarter. 
 
Central Missouri scored on their opening drive of the second quarter to go up 35-20. Emporia State would have an 11 play drive that only gained 35 yards and had to punt.  On the next play Marcellous Hawkins would run 84 yards down to the Hornet ten yard line. On the next play Zach Zebrowski found Arkell Smith for a ten yard touchdown to put the Mules up 42-20. After a three and out by ESU Zebrowski hit Zion Perry for an 89 yard touchdown pass to go up 49-20. Emporia State would answer with a 13 play, 69 yard drive capped by a five yard touchdown run by Braden Gleason to make it 49-27 with 4:12 left in the half. The next four possessions resulted in three and outs before UCM took over with 44 seconds left on their own 34 yard line.  They would go 66 yards in five plays with Zebrowski hitting Michael Fitzgerald for a 23 yard touchdown with three seconds left to make it 56-27 at the half. Central Missouri scored 21 more points in the third quarter to put the game out of reach.   
 
Braden Gleason would end his day in the third quarter and finished 35 of 60 for 349 yards with two touchdowns and added a team high 36 yards on eight carries with two rushing touchdowns.  Along the way he broke Braxton Marstall's Emporia State career passing record and became just the fifth player in MIAA history to go over 10,000 passing yards in his career.  Tyler Kahmann had ten catches for 117 yards and a touchdown.

Emporia State ran 98 plays for 451 yards while Central Missouri had an MIAA record 981 yards of total offense on 88 plays.
 
After playing five of seven games on the road, with three of them against nationally ranked teams, the Hornets will return to Jones Field at Welch Stadium on Saturday, October 28 to take on Neb.-Kearney.  Kick-off for Emporia State's Homecoming game is set for 2:00 p.m.
 
NOTES
Braden Gleason passed ESU's Braxton Marstall (9,918 yards from 2014-18) to set the Emporia State school record and is now ranked fifth in the MIAA in career passing yards with 10,004 yards.
Braden Gleason passed MWSU's Drew Newhart (10,594 yards from 2007-10) for fourth on the MIAA career total offense list with 10,959 yards.
The 77 points scored by UCM are the most scored by an ESU opponent in the NCAA era. The previous high was 72 vs Pittsburg State in 2004.
UCM quarterback Zach Zembrowski was 30 of 53 for 627 yards with eight touchdowns, breaking ESU's Brent Wilson's MIAA records of 522 passing yards and seven touchdowns set against UCO in 2013.