The Manhattan football team is over .500 for the first time since week 1 after a big win against Topeka West 49-0. The key to the game was “win the turnover battle” and the Indians did just that.

“I think that’s the first time all year we’ve won the turnover battle,” head coach Joe Schartz said. “That’s a basic stat in football and if you win the turnover battle your chances of winning go up tremendously and that’s one of the problems we’ve had the whole season and tonight we did a tremendous job with it.”

The defense committed two turnovers on the Chargers. One was an interception by junior Zac Hirschey and another one coming off a fumble forced by the defensive line.

“I think the defense executed and everybody was focused and did their jobs on Friday night,” senior linebacker Jeramiah Eustaquio said. “We made some mistakes but we responded to them and came back and learned from them.”

On the other side of the ball, the offense had zero turnovers on the night. The running game was on point with multiple touchdowns on the ground from senior quarterback Dayne Aschenbrenner, senior fullback Mason Reid and senior running back Lorenzo Wilhoite. 

“The line did a great job of getting off the ball,” Aschenbrenner said. “[The defense] took away their chances to score and gave us good field position.”

Over the past two wins, the big factor from Schartz’s point of view is consistency. The Indians have done that well in the last two games and have managed to pull out two wins.

“I think this is the second week in a row that we’ve had the same people in the same spot,” Schartz said. “We’re getting some consistency and people are getting healthy because of injury and illness but it shows that we’ve had some consistency in practice because it shows on Friday nights we’re getting better.”

There was high praise for the team as a whole from their head coach after the game. It will be a huge confidence booster heading into the final stretch of the season.

“I think we continue to get better,” Schartz said. “That’s as close to a complete football game that we’ve played all year.”

The Indians, now 4-3, will head into Homecoming week to face Emporia 7 p.m. Friday at Bishop Stadium. The team will be looking for a big win against a struggling 2-5 Spartans to lock up a good spot in the playoff seeding.