Football Game Preview: Hutchinson Salthawks vs. Emporia Spartans + Official Tickets

The Hutchinson Salthawks will host the Emporia Spartans on Friday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Hutchinson has three straight victories, Emporia has five straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the field.

Hutchinson is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They strolled past Maize South with points to spare on Friday, taking the game 47-28. The Salthawks pushed the score to 40-14 by the end of the third, a deficit the Mavericks cut but never quite recovered from.

Robert Hunter

Rushing Yards (Career)

10/24/25 vs Maize South	158
10/10/25 vs Haysville Campus	156
10/17/25 @ Newton	73
09/05/25 @ Andover Central	43
09/12/25 @ Valley Center	39

Robert Hunter produced another solid effort rushing for 158 yards and one score on only 15 carries, while also throwing for 121 yards and a pair of TDs. Those 158 rushing yards gave him a new career-high. Karmelo Green was in the mix as well, providing Hutchinson with two touchdowns.

Wins are hard to come by when you can't run the rock, something Hutchinson proved: they limited Maize South to a paltry 1.5 yards per carry. The team can thank Brodie McCuan for the heroic effort on defense: he. Hutchinson's run defense has been on the up-and-up: they allowed 2.86 yards per carry earlier this season, but they've only allowed 7.4 on average over their last five games.

Hutchinson didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off three passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Davin Morgan and Kameron Wilson. Wilson got in on the action too, converting a pick into a touchdown.

Meanwhile, Emporia came up short against Junction City on Friday, falling 28-6. While losing is never fun, the Spartans can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Kansas football rankings (they are ranked 127th, while the Bluejays are ranked 18th).

Hutchinson's record is now 6-2. As for Emporia, their loss dropped their record down to 2-6.