Emporia State Football won its season opener against Minot State 27-7 at Welch Stadium on Aug. 28. The match up between the Hornets and the Beavers was a first for the program.
ESU started the game with the ball and took a 13 play, 75 yard drive early on. The drive was topped off by a 12 yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Ben Harris to senior wide receiver Kingsley Bennet.
“That 13 play drive was very important, all week we gave ourselves the challenge of being a dominant offense all game and we knew that if we won the coin toss we would take the ball because we had the confidence that we would score that first drive and set the tone for the team,” Bennet said of the drive. “We prepared ourselves for that moment and it showed we dominated that drive doing everything we game-planned and put the ball in the end zone to give our team momentum.”
The Hornets held the Beavers to 14 yards on their drive and then added a 16 play, 71 yard drive to the night. With 45 seconds left in the first quarter, senior punter/kicker Caden Dodson took a 26 yard field goal to advance ESU 10-0.
With 4:55 left in the half, redshirt sophomore Diego Cearns ran the ball from 23 yards out to give ESU a 17 point advantage. The play heavily influenced the team’s momentum, he said.
“It definitely felt like we were rolling,” said Cearns. “Once we have that tempo it’s hard to stop us. We took it and kept going with it.”
Junior defensive back Clem McCullough later returned the ball to the Hornets; after the next six plays, wide receiver Malik O’Atis, another redshirt sophomore, made it 24-0 with a 25 yard touchdown pass right before the half.
To start off the second half, junior linebacker Landon Boss forced a fumble before the Hornets used another 13 play drive over 52 yards to increase the score 27-0. Dodson finished off the run with a 25 yard field goal with 7:11 left in the third quarter. Minot State got onto the scoreboard in the fourth, but the Hornets pushed back to take the game.
The season opener marked Harris’ first start for ESU and his first start in “a long time.” He said there were “a lot of butterflies before the game” but they calmed down after the first snap. Harris hit 11 different receivers in his first start, and told The Bulletin about the plays in his own pocket and the team’s versatility on the field.
“We have a lot of depth. It shows how versatile we can be in every facet of the game,” he said. “I was just trying to hit the open guy at all times.”
For Bennet, who scored the first touchdown of the season, the opener was more bittersweet.
“The first touchdown meant a lot to me being that it was my last college first drive. Knowing how hard we worked this offseason for that moment, and being able to celebrate with my brothers was a true blessing just showing that hard work pays off and it really set the tone for the rest of the game,” he said.
As the Hornets prepare to travel to San Angelo, Texas and play No. 13 Angelo State on Sept. 6, Harris says there’s a significant lesson about the offense that he plans to carry into the next game.
“We are explosive so we need to capitalize every chance we get,” he told The Bulletin. “We know we need to have a better second half but I believe in the guys and that will be the theme of our team.”
