Football | 10/21/2018 2:54:08 PM
Each week David Boyce, the MIAA’s featured writer, will cover a key match-up in one of the conference’s sports. In this week’s MIAA Showcase, Boyce covered football’s match-up between Missouri Western at Emporia State.
EMPORIA, Kan. - Missouri Western scored 20 straight points and built a 13-point lead in the second quarter. The Griffons, however, lost the momentum just before halftime, fell behind by eight by the end of the third quarter and looked doomed to a loss at Emporia State’s Homecoming game.
But behind a youthful group of running backs, Missouri Western laid to rest its road woes in the fourth quarter and came away with a 42-28 victory Saturday afternoon at Welch Stadium.
“All season, we’ve focused on just keep pushing forward and trust in what we are doing,” said Missouri Western quarterback Dom Marino. “We clicked, finally.”
The win lifted Missouri Western to 5-3, and Emporia State dropped to 4-4 in the pivotal game for both teams.
The outcome was important for the Griffons, who have struggled to get a quality road win. Second-year head coach Matt Williamson put an emphasis on it. By the third quarter, it appeared Missouri Western was going to let another one slip away on the road.
Emporia State scored three touchdowns in the third quarter. The Hornets took a 28-20 lead into the final quarter.
“We haven’t won a good road game since I have been here,” Williamson said. “We played ok and we had a couple of road games where we didn’t show up. We met about it as a staff. We addressed it. I try to be as real as I can with the players.
“I talked to the players and said, we, as a unit, as a program, as a university, we have to leave our campus, get on a bus and travel to another place and compete like we do at home and take away a W. Our kids grasped that today. This is going to give them momentum going into the future.”
The Griffons definitely showed that attitude in the fourth quarter. Missouri Western tightened up on defense, giving the offense plenty of opportunities to regain the lead. Behind the strong play of the offensive line and the leadership from Marino, the running backs took over.
Freshman running back James Bailey scored on touchdown runs of 8 yards and 13 yards in the fourth quarter. His 13-yard touchdown run gave Missouri Western a 35-28 lead with 3 minutes, 48 seconds left in the game.
Donnell Hawkins, another freshman running back for the Griffons, put the game away 2 minutes later when he scored on a 4-yard touchdown run.
Bailey finished with 81 yards and four touchdowns. Hawkins had 71 yards and one touchdown, and sophomore Shamar Griffith added 67 yards and a touchdown.
“We all came in together,” Griffith said. “It is a chemistry we built over fall camp to now. It is an unbelievable feeling to be part of this group.”
After suffering a 17-16 loss at home to Central Oklahoma a week ago, the Griffons were determined to bounce back.
“This win means a lot because last week we got beat by a point,” Bailey said. “The focus has been responding to adversity. We just wanted to respond. A lot of times, in games like this, we beat ourselves.”
Missouri Western started strong after giving up the first touchdown of the game. The Griffons put together three-straight touchdown drives for 20 points. The hot stretch that started late in the first quarter and extended into the opening 4 minutes in the second quarter propelled the Griffons to a 20-14 halftime lead.
The Hornets gave the home crowd plenty to cheer midway through the first quarter when they took a 7-0 lead on a 10-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Braxton Marstall to senior wide receiver Tyler Harris.
Emporia State appeared to be in control. The defense had already stopped the Griffons on three plays on Missouri Western’s first drive. It turned out to be a bit of a mirage.
The next time the Griffons touched the ball, they went on a 10 play, 68-yard drive that ended with a 1-yard touchdown run by freshman running back James Bailey.
Over the next 10 minutes, the Griffons administered a hard-hitting, punishing defense that kept Emporia State from generating consistent offense.
Missouri Western rewarded its defense for the stops by scoring the next three times it got the ball. The Griffons took a 14-7 lead with 12:57 left in the second quarter when they went on an 8-play, 45-yard drive and scored on a 7-yard run by Griffith.
Three minutes later, Missouri Western appeared to be in complete control when Bailey scored his second rushing touchdown on a 10-yard run.
After the score, Emporia State rediscovered it defense and stopped the Griffons from scoring again in the last 9 minutes of the second quarter.
Despite trailing, the Hornets went into halftime with the momentum. With 5 seconds left in the second quarter, senior wide receiver Justin Brown caught a 5-yard touchdown pass from Marshall.
The touchdown was set up by a 26-yard run by Harris on a fake punt late in the second quarter. Harris had a special game at wide receiver and punter. Twice he pinned Missouri Western inside the 20 on two punts. He caught nine passes for 117 yards and two touchdowns, including a 64-yard play that gave Emporia State a 21-20 lead with 10:26 left in the third quarter.
SATURDAY SCORES IN THE MIAA
Central Oklahoma 34, Washburn 0 - Edmond, Oklahoma
Fort Hays State 29, Nebraska Kearney 26 (2OT) - Kearney, Nebraska
Missouri Southern 24, Northeastern State 19 - Joplin, Missouri
Missouri Western 42, Emporia State 28 - Emporia, Kansas
No. 11 Northwest Missouri 38, Lindenwood 17 - St. Charles, Missouri
Pittsburg State 48, Central Missouri 28 - Pittsburg, Kansas