One player changed Friday night’s football game, and he wasn’t wearing a Manhattan jersey.

He played for Hayden, and his name was Connor Schumacher.

The five-foot-eleven senior accounted for two touchdowns and a two-point conversion in the fourth quarter, sealing Hayden’s 21-14 win over the Manhattan High football team Friday night in Topeka. The Indians are now 2-1 on the season.

His first touchdown came in the second quarter when he squeezed into the endzone from a yard out. The second came on the final play of the first half, when he caught a shovel pass from quarterback Dallas Crittenden, ran to his left, saw no daylight, and reversed fields to his right, outrunning the Manhattan defense and rushing 46 yards into the endzone. The touchdown sent the Wildcats into the locker room down 14-13, but Manhattan head coach Joe Schartz was happy with his defense on the night.

“Our defense played extremely well,” Schartz said. “It came down for our defense not being able to make tackles on two plays. Other than that, they played extremely well.”

The second play Schartz referenced was Schumacher’s two-point conversion, a play on which Schumacher also reversed fields and scampered into the Indians’ endzone.

After the conversion that gave the Wildcats a 21-14 advantage at the 5:26 mark of the fourth quarter, Manhattan got the ball back and threatened to retake the lead. Junior quarterback Ian Trapp completed a 26-yard strike to senior Reece Kohn, setting up MHS at the Hayden 39-yard line. Trapp then hooked up with junior Parker Beer for 12 yards, and Manhattan was at the 26-yard line. Two plays later, Trapp kept it himself for nine yards and a first down to the Hayden 16.

That’s when the momentum stalled for the visitors.

Beer was flagged for a false start after Trapp’s rush, and after two three-yard rushes from Trapp, Manhattan was faced with a third-and-three from the nine.

It was an incomplete pass, and the game came down to fourth-and-three.

That was also an incomplete pass.

Hayden got the ball back, and Crittenden kneeled out the clock, dealing the Indians their first loss of the year. Schartz said he was pleased with his team’s effort.

“It is deflating, but I don’t think the kids ever hung their heads,” Schartz said. “We battled all the way down to the end, and had an opportunity there to tie the ballgame, and we didn’t execute offensively.”

The game started out differently from how it ended. Trapp opened up the scoring with a nine-yard touchdown rush in the first quarter, and senior Blake Wewer punched it in from two yards out. Manhattan led 14-0 at the 9:44 mark of the second quarter.

But the Wildcats retaliated with Schumacher’s one-yard touchdown rush, a seven-minute, 57-second drive, and again with the senior’s half-ending touchdown reception.

Senior defensive back Jemell Richardson said that though both teams play similar offensive styles, his team’s first two blowout wins of the season provided a chance for the defense to surrender points.

“I expected it to be easier, because [it’s] what we run against all summer,” Richardson said. “But they came out hard. I feel like we were pretty cocky, because of our first two wins. Once they came out fighting, we weren’t ready for it.”

Two turnovers plagued the Indians at inopportune times. On Manhattan’s first drive of the second half, Trapp ripped off a long run, but fumbled after being hit a few times. The second MHS turnover came when sophomore C.J. Lowery muffed a Hayden punt in the fourth frame, setting the stage for Crittenden to rush two yards into the endzone, followed by Schumacher’s two-point conversion.

Hayden didn’t turn the ball over at all, and Schartz said it was key to the outcome of the game.

“That’s what the had to do to win, was protect the football, and they did a nice job of it,” Schartz said. “That’s why they lost that game last week: they had five turnovers. They had no turnovers tonight, and that’s a big boost for them.”

Manhattan returns to action next Friday at Highland Park. Schartz cited communication as an area in which he would like to see improvement against the Scots.

“We need to be able to communicate better, because I wasn’t able to communicate with my guys down the stretch,” Schartz said. “That’s some experience, and hopefully we gained the experience from this game.”