In the two games following Eureka’s dramatic 31-30 win over Kirkwood on Sept. 9, the Wildcats outscored Marquette and Oakville by a combined 24-0 in the third quarter.
Halftime adjustments helped Eureka beat the Mustangs 35-28 (Sept. 16) and Tigers 42-19 on Sept. 23, keeping the Wildcats unbeaten at 5-0. A dynamic third quarter helped Eureka in the Kirkwood game, too.
The Wildcats are averaging 37 points per outing, but it could be even more with better offensive consistency in the first half.
“Obviously, we need to start better in the first half so we don’t have to have such great third quarters, which is a coaching point,” Eureka head coach Jake Sumner said after the Wildcats went through walk-throughs on Monday. “As we move deeper in the season, we want to play clean football.”
Senior running back Kevin Emmanuel continues his torrid pace toward a memorable season, scoring five touchdowns and rushing for 227 yards on 38 carries against Oakville. Emmanuel put the Tigers away with three scores in the second half, one coming on an eight-minute drive. The Wildcat defense, meanwhile, pitched a shutout in the second half.
“I wouldn’t say it (the eight-minute drive) put the game away, but it was the shift of momentum for us and wore down Oakville,” Eureka senior quarterback Jace Peterson said.
Peterson isn’t content with just handing the ball off to Emmanuel, either. The Wildcat signal-caller has completed almost 60 percent of his passes (25 of 42) for 330 yards and five touchdowns. Tight end Trenton Groff is an appealing target because of his size (6-4, 240) and two of his eight catches have gone for TDs. Receiver Allen Brown leads the Wildcats with 15 catches for 225 yards and two touchdowns.
“It’s a team effort and I think we’re well prepared and everyone does their own job,” Peterson said.
Peterson is the third senior starting quarterback in three years at Eureka. Sumner said he does a great job of making defenses think a pass is coming, when Emmanuel is the obvious hammer of the offense.
“Great kid, great quarterback,” Sumner said. “He’s done a great job of helping our offense be successful. He’s got his own set of skills (and is) one of the fastest kids on the team. He’s done a great job of making the box lighter. He passed for over 100 yards against Marquette and he just missed a couple of passes against Oakville that would have put him over 100 again. That’s good for our style of offense. I’m proud and excited for him.”
After the visiting Tigers took a 7-0 lead Friday with a long touchdown pass early in the first quarter, Emmanuel tied it six minutes later on a 16-yard run with kicker Bryce Clark tacking on the extra point. Peterson hooked up with Brown for a 41-yard TD pass and a 14-7 lead and a few minutes later Emmanuel scored on a one-yard burst. Clark’s PAT was good and it was 21-7.
The Tigers weren’t about to fold up, however, as Ethan Venable plowed for two touchdowns in the last four minutes before halftime. But the extra-point try failed on both scores, so Eureka remained on top 21-19 at the break.
Each of Emmanuel’s three TDs in the second half came on runs of fewer than five yards. Behind the veteran offensive line of Eli Craft, Sam Eremita, Justin Selbert, Drew Swingle and Josiah Hubbard, Emmanuel has rushed for 1,155 yards this season and 2,870 since the start of the 2021 campaign. In the St. Louis area, only Seckman senior quarterback Cole Ruble (21) and MICDS senior running back Steven Hall (18) have scored more touchdowns this fall than Emmanuel’s 16.
“They’re a very veteran, skilled group and everything builds outward from them,” Sumner said of the O-line. “They’ve been rock solid. They don’t always get the glory, but they prepare as well as any linemen from Eureka. They’re consistently looking for growth and that’s why we’ve put up over 1,000 yards on the ground in five games.”
Eureka leads the Suburban Conference Yellow pool at 3-0. In the conference win at Marquette, Eureka’s defense scored the first points when Josh West recovered a fumble for a TD with the game less than two minutes old.
Trailing 10-0 in the second quarter, the Mustangs (4-1, 1-1) scored two rushing touchdowns on short runs by quarterback Jack Ahlbrand to take a 14-10 lead. But Emmanuel scored on a 6-yard run with 1:48 left in the half to put Eureka back in front 17-14. A 29-yard field goal by Clark and a 31-yard TD pass from Peterson to Brown were the only third-quarter points for either team and Emmanuel hit pay dirt from three yards out in the first minute of the fourth to give the Wildcats a 35-14 lead. Ahlbrand threw touchdown passes of 52 and eight yards to Gavin Marsh in the final period, not enough to overhaul the visitors.
“Those games are decided by moments like (West’s fumble recovery for a TD) and our special teams played lights-out,” Sumner said. “It’s a three-phase game. They had a malfunction on their side and we took advantage of it. I was proud the way our kids grabbed ahold of that game.”
Sumner said Clark’s 42-yard field goal as time expired to beat Kirkwood had a residual effect on the next two games, establishing the resiliency of this team.
“We had an up-and-down battle in the first game against Fort Zumwalt West where we trusted each other,” Sumner said. “The same against Kirkwood. Teams with 1:36 on the clock would have packed it in and said that’s it. But our kids battled back and put us in position to win the game.”
Past success won’t matter when the Wildcats travel to Pattonville for a Yellow pool game against the surging Pirates (4-1, 1-1). In its highest-scoring contest last season, Eureka beat Pattonville 57-21. Emmanuel scored the game’s first three touchdowns and finished with 149 yards.
“They’re a very skilled, talented football team,” Sumner said. “They’ve got some great players in their run box on the defensive line. They’ve got a good quarterback and they are always very talented and coached very well. We’ll have to bring our A-game and take care of business.”