Story by MAYAN PAZ Video by RYAN SCHUCKMAN Photo by DANIELA SALINAS
Tiger Media Network
After playing their final home game for the season in a 53-9 win over Missouri Southern, the Fort Hays State University football team will head East on Saturday to face No. 11 Emporia State. Despite holding steady at fourth in the MIAA standings, the Tigers still have a chance to get a Bowl game invitation, but they’ll have to beat the Hornets on the road to keep those hopes alive.
FHSU Head Coach Chris Brown is ready to take on the challenge, as he spoke to the media this past week about what he expects from his team.
“Emporia is a very good football team, but we need to focus on what we can do and win those next two games we have left,” Brown said. “We need to focus on ourselves, first of all, this weekend and then on the next game, and just sit back and hope that the committee will decide to send us to a bowl game.”
The players are confident in their ability to get the job done after the long season they had, and running back Shane Watts said the team is going to find a way to win the games they have left on the road against Emporia and Nebraska-Kearny.
“We are going to finish 8-3, as simple as that,” Watts said.
On the offensive side, the Hornets tend to play a quick possession game as they lead the conference with a total of 688 snaps played. The fast pace they dictate is usually an efficient one; the Hornets are ranked third in the conference with 452.3 yards per game.
“We’ll have to be alert and ready all the time,” Brown said. “We will make sure that we are ready for that pace. We can’t let them surprise us. We played teams that play at a quick pace before, like UCO and Central Missouri, and we will be ready for it.”
Defensive lineman Gaven Haselhorst also addressed the fast pace the Tigers are going to face but also gave credit to Fort Hays’s defense, as he feels like the team has been improving throughout the season.
“We finally started to play as well as we should have been the last few weeks, and we will have to make sure we do that and attack Emporia’s quarterback at every chance we have,” Haselhorst said.
ESU quarterback, Gunnar Gundy, is a junior transfer out of D1 Oklahoma State, and he has been impressive for the Hornets, averaging 319 passing yards per game with a 65.5% completion rate over the season. However, these numbers could have been higher had Gundy not been injured in ESU’s game against Northwest Missouri State. In his most recent game against Nebraska Kearney, Gundy threw for 564 yards and five touchdowns on 48-68 passing. Gundy also has two other games of 400+ passing yards this year.
“He is a great quarterback and a very versatile one as well,” Brown said.
The Tigers have yet to win a game on the road this season and will have to do that twice now to keep their postseason hopes alive.
“We played some tough teams on the road (Pittsburg State, Oklahoma State University, and Northwest University),” Brown said. “But we are trying to learn from our experience, and we’ll adjust a few things in the way that we plan the travel day so we’ll be more focused on football.”
The Tigers (6-3, 4-3) will face the Hornets (7-1, 5-1) at 1 p.m. on Saturday in Emporia.