Victory puts Wildcats in a tie for first in league

By Andy Brown
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Updated: October 13, 2015

Louisburg junior T.J. Dover sacks the De Soto quarterback Friday night at Wildcat Stadium in Louisburg. Dover and the Wildcats picked up their second straight win with a 43-28 victory over De Soto.

It was a must-win game for Louisburg on Friday night.

Sure, it was only the Wildcats’ sixth game of the season. District playoffs haven’t even started yet and there is still a long way to go.

However, if Louisburg wanted to claim at least a share of the Frontier League title, they needed to beat De Soto, which was undefeated in the league.

Louisburg rose to the challenge and did so with a lot of flair.

The Wildcats put away De Soto with big plays in their 43-28 win at Wildcat Stadium. Louisburg scored on plays of 20 yards or more on four different occasions and put De Soto in a big hole in a hurry.

Louisburg (5-1, 4-1) is now tied with De Soto and Paola at the top of the league standings and the Wildcats only have one more league game remaining.

“It was a big win,” Louisburg coach Kyle Littrell said. “It was two 4-1 teams going at it and they got a win against a team (Paola) that we lost to. We just wanted to come out and establish our physicality today and that was the bottom line.”

Scoring wasn’t a problem for Louisburg as it was able to do whatever it wanted for most of the game. Whether it was through the air or on the ground, the Wildcats were able to pick up big chunks of yards.

Junior running Korbin Hankinson (left) waits to get a block from teammate Thomas San Agustin on Friday in Louisburg.

Senior quarterback Austin Terry provided a lot of that firepower as he accounted for four touchdowns, included three on long pass plays. Terry found seniors Mitchell McLellan and Cole Kramer on touchdowns of 52 yards or more.

Terry finished the night 9 of 12 passing for 241 yards to go along with those three scores. McLellan had five catches for 137 yards and two touchdowns, while Kramer had four catches for 104 yards and a score.

“Those are our guys,” Littrell said. “We want to get them the ball and give them the opportunity to do their thing. I thought we did that a few times. If we throw the hitch enough times they are going to bite on it and they did.”

Louisburg also welcomed back junior running back Korbin Hankinson as he returned to the backfield for the first time in three weeks. Hankinson didn’t have much rust to shake off as he led the Wildcats with 132 yards on the ground on 18 carries.

As a team, the Wildcats gashed De Soto for 278 yards rushing with the combination of Hankinson, Thomas San Agustin, Alex Dunn and Terry. Louisburg also put in a different wrinkle to its offense as it ran a wishbone set and had three backs in the backfield.

“We put in a little bit of bone this week,” Littrell said. “It was nice to have Korbin back, but even if he wasn’t back, we still probably would have run a little bit of it. We wanted to give them something that they haven’t seen a whole lot out of us and we were able to some nice things with that in the first half.”

Defensively, the Wildcats were just as good through the first three quarters. Louisburg held a good De Soto offense to two touchdowns – one on a 72-yard run on a missed assignment and the other where De Soto had a short field. Overall, Louisburg held De Soto to just 159 total yards of offense.

Junior lineman T.J. Dover had a big night on the defensive line. Dover led Louisburg with seven tackles to go along with two sacks.

Dustyn Rizzo and McLellan each finished with five tackles and Rizzo also forced a fumble. Jake Hill and Dunn also had four tackles each from the linebacker spot.

Louisburg set the tone early as it opened the game with a 13-play, 80-yard scoring drive that ended with a 1-yard touchdown run from Terry.

The Wildcat defense responded to hold De Soto on its first possession thanks to a Dover sack. Five plays later, Louisburg made it a two score game when Terry found McLellan on a 52-yard touchdown pass.

Right before halftime, the Wildcats put together another long 11-play, 80-yard drive that ended with a 1-yard touchdown run from San Agustin to put Louisburg up 21-7.

Terry and Kramer connected on a 72-yard touchdown pass down the sideline to open the third quarter. Kramer caught the pass near the sidelines, stopped to let the defender fly by and then ran the rest of the way untouched.

De Soto added a score to cut the Wildcat lead in half, but Louisburg opened with two touchdowns to start the fourth quarter, including a 20-yard touchdown run from Hankinson and a 68-yard score from Terry to McLellan.

The Wildcats open district play Friday when they host Sumner Academy. The top two teams in each district then advance to the state playoffs and the Wildcats hope to continue the momentum they have built.

“We are 0-0 like everyone else,” Littrell said. “We aren’t going to forget what we have done these last six weeks. We are just going to try and build on this win and get better. If we can eliminate our mistakes, then maybe we can turn into the team that we want to be. With that being said, it is going to take four quarters to get that done and we haven’t done that yet. I am still looking for that game.”

LOUISBURG 14 7 7 15 – 43

DE SOTO 7 0 7 14 – 28

First quarter

L: Austin Terry 1 run (Alex Dunn kick)

L: Mitchell McLellan 52 pass from Austin Terry (Dunn kick)

D: Anthony Slaughter 72 run (kick good)

Second quarter

L: Thomas San Agustin 1 run (Dunn kick)

Third quarter

L: Cole Kramer 72 pass from Austin Terry (Dunn kick)

D: Cole Schmitt 8 run (kick good)

Fourth quarter