Pitt State Football talks improvement after 24-21 loss to Emporia State

PITTSBURG, KS – The Pitt State Gorillas and the Emporia State Hornets came into this weekend with undefeated records starting off their seasons 2-0.

Despite a hard fought battle in the second half, it was the emphatic first half finish for Emporia State that set the Gorillas back for the remainder of the game.

A 17-7 Hornets lead to close the first half and Cade Stephenson continued to dominate. The sophomore linebacker for Emporia captured an early interception to make it his second of the evening.

Trying to bounce back on the Pitt State offense was running back Noah Hernandez. The redshirt senior squeezed his way into the endzone for a Gorilla’s touchdown later in the half. He ended up finishing with 99 rushing yards off of 16 attempts.

Pitt State would still knock at the door as quarterback Chad Dodson found one of his top targets, Jack Roberts.

Roberts would score another touchdown, but with the slow start in the first half, Head Coach Tom Anthony said it’s going to be tough to win games like this going forward in the season.

“The first half we couldn’t get off the field. We can’t allow a team like that to be on the field for eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve play drives. You can’t spot a team a half like that and expect to win,” Anthony mentions.

“It starts at the top with us captains,” redshirt senior linebacker Jack Barkley says. We talked about it in the locker room, but one game is not going to define us.

“There was times tonight where things slipped in all three phases of the game and against a team like this you can’t go out and have turnovers and you can’t make mistakes like that,” redshirt senior running back Noah Hernandez adds.

Pitt State will hit the road next week to Topeka, Kansas on Saturday, September 21st, to face up against Washburn at 1:00pm.

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