Junior quarterback Tyler Eckenrode dives into the end zone for a touchdown. Washburn defeated ESU 31-17 Saturday at Welch Stadium. Jon Coffey/The Bulletin

On a bright and sunny day at Welch Stadium, the Hornets hosted Washburn in the annual Turnpike Tussle rivalry game. This marked the 108th time that the two teams squared off against one another.

In a hard fought “tussle” the Hornets came up short against the eighth ranked Washburn Ichabods, 17-31. The rivalry is now split 51-51-6.

“It’s a big rivalry,” said senior linebacker Matt Rosenhamer. “I have some buddies that play over there and it would have meant a lot to beat those guys.”

Midway through the first quarter Washburn broke the 0-0 tie with a field goal to take an early lead. Towards the end of the first quarter, junior defensive back Derek Lohmann intercepted a Washburn pass and ran it all the way back to the 15-yard line, seizing the early momentum from the Ichabods.

“It was a big play at the time,” Lohmann said. “It grabbed the momentum for us.”

The Hornets were able to take advantage of the short field on a three-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Tyler Eckenrode to wide receiver RayRay Davis, and grabbed the lead,

7-3, early in the second quarter. Later in the second quarter, the Hornets were able to sustain an eight-play drive that covered 85 yards. The drive culminated in a two-yard touchdown run by quarterback Tyler Eckenrode.

“Our coaches put us in good positions,” Eckenrode said. “In the first half we executed real well.”

The Hornets held the lead and headed into halftime with a 14-9 lead over the Ichabods. But the Hornets were unable to muster one touchdown scoring drive in the second half.

With the opening possession of the second half, the Ichabods drove 73 yards to take the lead 16-14. With their backs against the wall, senior linebacker Ben Carlson, was able to force a fumble with ESU recovering at the 27 yard line. The offense couldn’t take full advantage of the great field position the defense handed them and had to settle for a field goal. This was the last time that the Hornets scored.

Washburn scored two more touchdowns to win the game. It was a tough defeat on a day in which the Hornets forced four turnovers.

“I figured it would be a hard, tough-fought game and it was,” said head coach Garin Higgins. “Our kids played well… we just didn’t make the plays at the end of the game when we needed to.”

The next game on the schedule is against Missouri Southern at 1 p.m. next Saturday at Welch Stadium.

Marcus Hix

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Quarterback Andre Sloan-EL is pushed to the sideline by a Missouri Western defender Saturday afternoon at Welch Stadium. Hornets lost 6-29. Kellen Jenkins/The Bulletin.

The Emporia State football team will host the Washburn University Ichabods at 1 p.m. this Saturday at Welch Stadium. The Hornets, who have compiled a record of 2-8, 1-7 in the MIAA, look to avenge last year’s 6-14 loss against Washburn, in which the Hornets committed four turnovers and had a punt blocked.

The Emporia State-Washburn rivalry is the most played active rivalry in NCAA Division II – Saturday’s match will be the 106^th meeting in the series in which ESU leads all-time, 51-48-6. As of late, however, the Ichabods have taken advantage of the series by winning the last five meetings.

Head coach Garrin Higgins said he feels that the magnitude of the “Turnpike Tussle,” as the series is more commonly known, can be motivation enough for his Hornets.

“We know it’s a rival game – usually that in of itself takes care of getting our kids ready to play,” Higgins said. “Now we do have a lot of young football players that probably need to learn a little bit more about the rivalry than what they know about it, as far as the history of it. We’ll prepare like any other normal week, and I would think it being the seniors’ last opportunity and also an opportunity to win a big game, our kids would naturally have a good week of preparation.”

A win would end the season on a positive note for the Hornets, according to sophomore defensive end and elementary education major Daniel Webb.

“For the team, it (a win) would be tremendous,” Webb said. “Having the seniors go out with a win…and to get that final win so it kind of carries over into the off-season workouts.”

The road to the final game of the season for the Hornets wasn’t an easy one. Tough opponents, coupled with the hindrance of midseason injuries and illness have prevented the team from achieving some of their goals.

Webb said the team was well aware of the rough season ahead of them back in August.

“You never go into a season thinking, ‘OK, we’re only going to win two, three games,’” Webb said. “You’re going in this conference, and you know that each team is going to be very good…we’ve played tough teams week in and week out. That was expected that we were going to have to play tough teams, for sure.”

Higgins was incredibly optimistic about the team’s competitive schedule, but also noted that he couldn’t foresee some of the adversity that the Hornets have faced thus far.

“You always have high expectations to start the season, but you know, things like this happen, and what you have to do is just keep working, and our kids have been doing that, they really have been,” Higgins said. “I’m proud of how they’ve practiced each and every week, and we feel like we’re doing the right thing, we just have not been able to get over the hump. We know it’s going to come, and we know that we’re going to get it done – our players believe that, our coaches believe that.

It’s been a very frustrating – it’s been a very different year than probably we expected. Now we knew it was going to be tough, but just the things that have happened to us throughout the course of the year has been a lot of adversity.”

For Webb, the losing season isn’t something he wants to spill over into the off-season. Hard work and determination will aid in that effort, Webb said.

“We have a good group,” Webb said. “Each week we come out and work just as hard. We’re going to work hard this last week and this off-season and push ourselves harder. You don’t want this taste (losing) in your mouth season after the season, so I feel that it’s going to push the team extra hard in the off-season to push harder and go harder than we’ve been.”

Sophomore quarterback and recreation major Sheldon Smith said he is optimistic about Saturday’s game.

“We know that one (a win) is coming soon and this might be the one,” Smith said. “It’s a rivalry game, so you know we’re going to be pumped up for it.”

Higgins hopes to use this season’s experiences as a learning tool for his young team.

“I hope that the losing part of it doesn’t carry over, of course, but I think that what we do is we use it as something to learn from, especially from our younger kids,” Higgins said. “Hopefully we get a win Saturday to go into the off-season on a positive note.”

Shane Wilson/The Bulletin

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The stakes were high for the #8 Emporia State Hornets as they hosted the #7 Washburn Lady Blues last Friday night. The Hornets walked away with a pivotal victory in five sets, 3-2.

Middle Hitter Brianne Boner blocks a spike by Washburn’s Hillary Hughes Friday night at White Auditorium. The Hornets won the “Turnpike Tussle” taking down the No. 7 ranked Lady Blues 3-2 (25-23, 25-21, 18-25, 26-28, 15-13). Kellen Jenkins/The Bulletin

The significance of the match was well known by the over 2,000 fans in attendance, along with freshman setter and undecided major Katelyn Schmidtberger.

“I knew this game coming in was going to be a great one for our team to win just to keep us in the running for the MIAA, and my team did a great job,” Schmidtberger said. “I have to fill in to just play the position, and they’re behind me 100 percent, so I have to have confidence in myself.”

Upon learning that Washburn leaped ESU in the AVCA poll, senior outside hitter and marketing major Arica Shepard felt that the team had some business to take care of.

“We always try not to look at the rankings, but when we did see them above us we were kind of just like, ‘OK, we have to do something about this.’…this game meant a lot to us,’” Shepard said.

The first two sets proved to be great successes for the Hornets, winning 25-23 and 25-21.

The last three were a bit more challenging. Already high in spirits due to the fast start, the Hornets saw two straight sets taken by Washburn because of defensive breakdowns and a general lack of focus.

“Washburn is a tough team,” said Head Coach Bing Xu. “Nationally, they’re one spot ahead of us, and at the start of the third game we could tell they wanted to bring their game back, so we kind of backed off a little bit and started questioning our ability a little bit instead of hanging with them…we lost our composure.”

After Washburn captured the fourth set, Shepard said that she started having recollections of losses during the current season.

Outside Hitter Arica Shepard spikes the ball past Washburn’s Kate Hampson Friday night at White Auditorium. The Hornets won the “Turnpike Tussle” taking down the No. 7 ranked Lady Blues 3-2 (25-23, 25-21, 18-25, 26-28, 15-13). Kellen Jenkins/The Bulletin.

“I don’t know if we got too comfortable or we maybe thought we had it or something,” Shepard said. “I kind of had a flashback to West Texas A&M right after we lost that fourth game, I was like, ‘Oh no, we can’t do this again.’”

In the potential midst of another loss to a top 10 opponent, the Hornets tightened up their defense and minimized errors to win the final set, 15-13. Xu noted what the importance of a win against rival Washburn meant for his program and the rest of the season.

“This game will really keep our confidence up and our momentum going to carry to the postseason,” Xu said. “We need to kind of learn from it and bring this momentum and go to the next game.”

Junior right side hitter and nursing major Brittney Miller noted the games high and low points and the importance of finishing.

“I think we played hard,” Miller said. “We need to still do a little better, win the first two sets, come out and win the third, so we’re going to continue to work at that. Big net game, big defense…It was definitely a big one to finish – we knew we needed to do it. We still need to work to go a little harder and not let that halftime give us a little downtime. We’ll continue to work. I think we played well.”

A point of surprising significance at the game was the crowd – more than once did the noise created by the fans affect on the opposing team’s server.

“This game’s huge,” Shepard said. “The outcome here, I think that helped so much – I’ve never seen it so filled.”

Schmidtberger shared the sentiment.

“The crowd was great,” Schmidtberger said. “I’m glad everyone came out and supported (the team).”

Setter Ting Liu and Middle Hitter Brianne Boner jump to block a spike by Washburn’s Jessica Kopp Friday night at White Auditorium. The Hornets won the “Turnpike Tussle” taking down the No. 7 ranked Lady Blues 3-2 (25-23, 25-21, 18-25, 26-28, 15-13). Kellen Jenkins/The Bulletin.

Miller led the team with 20 kills, followed closely by Shepard with 17. Junior setter and business major Ting Lui added 54 sets.

Shepard, in her senior season, was happy to defeat Washburn, not only for the team’s interest, but for her own, special interest as well. Shepard’s twin sister, Ashley, plays for the Lady Blues.

“Winning this game feels awesome,” Shepard said. “Hopefully we’ll continue this success.”

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