Emporia High football put a scare into 6A #3 Junction City on Friday night, leading early in the 2nd quarter before the Blue Jays turned things around in a 28-6 final. EHS used timely defense and a physical running game to get the score to 0-0 after the 1st. Most of the points of the game would come in the 2nd, where Emporia would strike first, taking the lead on a 1-yard plunge from Ben Collins, his 2nd of the season to make it 6-0.
Things would go awry for the Spartans for the rest of the 2nd quarter, as the Blue Jays answered with 21 unanswered points, including a touchdown out of the Wildcat formation on 4th and goal from the five-yard line. Conrad Gomez added a pair of touchdown passes in the quarter while the Blue Jays took advantage of a botched snap on a punt to facilitate a score to give Junction City a 21-6 halftime lead.
Emporia would not go away as they continued to hang tough, as Spartans defense forced a turnover at Emporia one-yard line to keep the score 21-6, where it remained going into the 4th quarter.
Unfortunately for the Spartans, turnovers were costly for Emporia in the 2nd half as there were a handful of fumbles that were drive killers for the offense, something Emporia could not overcome as Junction City added one more score in the 4th quarter. Spartans Head Coach Daniel Goodman said in a text message to KVOE that he was proud of the team and the way they fought on Friday night.
Ben Collins finished the night with 28 carries for 107 yards, Brody Telfer had 11 carries for 62 yards.
Emporia ends the regular season with a 2-6 record and will next face an opponent in the first round of the playoffs against a team that will be announced at a later date.
