Season Stats | Box Score (HTML)
EMPORIA, Kan. – Central Missouri football resumed its game with Emporia State Saturday afternoon after being suspended at halftime on Thursday.
The game picked up in the second half with the score knotted at 24-all, but ESU's two fourth-quarter touchdowns put the Hornets over the top as they defeated the Mules 45-34. UCM is now 1-1 on the season.
Quarterback
Garrett Fugate totaled 484 of the Mules' 565 yards of total offense. He was 24-of-37 passing for 371 yards and two touchdowns. He also picked up 113 yards on the ground with a score.
UCM scored on their opening drive of the second half as Fugate found
Jordan Keeney for a 10-yard score. The touchdown completed a 10-play 85-yard drive in 4:08. Fugate was 5-for-5 on the drive for 65 yards.
The Hornets quickly tied things up 31-31 just over two minutes later scoring on a 48-yard touchdown pass from Brent Wilson to Justin Brown.
The Mules were on the doorstep, looking to regain the lead, but a fumble inside the five-yard line squashed killed the drive and pushed momentum back towards Emporia.
Following the fumble, the Hornets used a 14-play, 80-yard drive to take a 38-31 lead that proved too much for the Mules.
UCM crept closer as
Billy Greco connected on a 27-yard field goal, making the score 38-34 with just over five-minutes to play, but the Hornets put the game away with a two-yard touchdown pass, giving them a 45-34 lead.
In the first half, played Thursday night, UCM jumped out to a 14-point lead at 24-10 after a
Jaylen Zachery 65-yard touchdown reception. Fugate and
Evan Campbell also had rushing scores in the half.
With 5:30 remaining in the half though, ESU was able to find the endzone twice to tie the game heading to the break. First on a Wilson pass to Brown for 37 yards, and again with 1:21 remaining, this time a Wilson 45 yard pass to Kavaski Ervin.
Part of Emporia's success was their impressive 13-of-19 third-down conversion rate, keeping the Mules defense on the field. UCM was only able to convert on four of their 14 third-down chances.
Zachery was the Mules leading receiver. He hauled in six passes for 159 yards and a score.
Ian Toalson also grabbed six passes for 82 yards. Behind Fugate,
Markel Smith rushed 12 times for 50 yards and Campbell totaled 14 yards on eight carries and also scored.
Brent Wilson finished the afternoon 35-for-45 for 446 yards and five TD's. Brown caught seven passes for 130 yards and two touchdowns. Brown was the Hornet leader on the ground, rushing for 88 yards on 21 attempts.
Defensively,
Jackson Newman was the Mules tackle leader with eight.
Triphinue Taylor recorded two tackles for loss and a sack. The Mules finished with three sacks.
For the Hornets, Kole Schankie and JP Lohrentz both totaled 10 tackles and Jason Tetuan came away with a pair of sacks.
The Mules are back in Warrensburg next weekend for a matchup with Northwest Missouri. Kickoff is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 19 at 1:30 p.m. The game will be streaming live at
www.UCMathletics.com. It can also be heard live on 1450 KOKO, 98.5 The Bar and warrensburgradio.com with Greg Hassler on the call.
