By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
In his long college coaching career, Washburn University football coach Craig Schurig has learned to accept the good, bad and in between and move on.
Washburn sophomore D.J. Bell returned a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown in last Saturday's 31-28 loss to No. 5-ranked Colorado School of Mines. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Highland Park product Tre Richardson had 168 all-purpose yards, including an 85-yard touchdown reception, in Washburn's 31-28 loss to No. 5-ranked Colorado School of Mines on Saturday. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
But some games are a little harder to forget, and last Saturday's 31-28 home loss to No. 5-ranked Colorado School of Mines is likely to be one of those.
The Ichabods took the Orediggers, the national runnerup the past two seasons, down to the end before a missed 44-yard field goal allowed CSM to avoid overtime and escape with the win.
"Obviously we played a very good team and we did enough good things to possibly win the game and when you come away not winning the game it does hurt,'' Schurig said. "But it hurts in a good way in the sense that we played a lot better and you take away some positives and you hope it makes the guys and coaches focused on, 'OK, now the details really matter between those wins and losses.' ''
Washburn (0-2 overall, 0-1 MIAA) will be back in Yager Stadium on Saturday, hosting its second straight top-10 opponent as No. 10-ranked Pittsburg State comes to town for a 1 p.m. kickoff on Washburn's Family Day.
The Gorillas (2-1, 1-1) will also be looking to bounce back after falling to No. 21-ranked Emporia State 24-21 last Saturday at PSU.
Schurig said he feels like his team has recovered well from last week's heartbreaker.
"It seems like practice-wise they've done really good,'' Schurig said. "We still have some things that we have to correct to win those style of games but I think they have confidence in the sense that toe to toe they can handle personnel-wise going up against anybody.
"We've played two really good teams and you try to win individual battles and we feel like we've won a lot of individual battles.''
Against Colorado School of Mines, Ichabod sophomore D.J. Bell returned a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown while sophomore Tre Richardson, a former Highland Park multi-sport star, had four catches for 99 yards, including a first-quarter 85-yard touchdown reception from Hayden Clark.
Hayden Clark (left) passed for 166 yards and a touchdown in last week's 31-28 loss to No. 4-ranked Colorado School of Mines. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Washburn Rural sophomore quarterback Keller Hurla threw for two touchdowns in last week's 31-28 loss to No. 4-ranked Colorado School of Mines.''
The Ichabods' two-quarterback system out-passed the Orediggers 258 yards to 255, with Clark going 6 of 11 for 166 yards and a score and Keller Hurla going 13 of 17 for 92 yards and two TDs
Jordan Finnesy led the Ichabods with eight tackles against the Orediggers and is second on the team with 15 tackles behind team-leader L.J. Minner Jr., who has 16 stops while adding two tackles for loss.
The Ichabods trail the all-time series with the Gorillas, 64-28-1, after having their four-game winning streak snapped in 2022. WU has won nine of the last 16 meetings, including four of the last five in Pittsburg.
The Ichabods will return to the road for the first time since their season opener when they will face Missouri Western on Sept. 28 at 1 p.m. in St. Joseph.
Washburn will be back in action at home hosting Northwest Missouri on Oct. 5 on Hall of Fame Saturday in Yager Stadium.
