Wildcats hang with state-ranked De Soto

By Andy Brown
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Updated: October 15, 2015

Louisburg’s Christian Scholtz makes a move past a Baldwin defender during Monday’s contest in Louisburg. The Wildcats lost the contest 2-0 and also fell to De Soto on Tuesday, 2-0.

If facing the No. 2 team in Class 4A on the road wasn’t hard enough, the Louisburg High School boys’ soccer team had to do it down a goal.

The Wildcats made their way back to De Soto on Tuesday after the game was postponed on Oct. 8 due to bad weather. De Soto managed to score a goal in the first five minutes before the game was called.

When it was finally over, the Wildcats still fell 2-0 to De Soto, but Louisburg coach Ben York couldn’t have left more encouraged from what he saw.

“To be honest, that might have been one of the better games we have played all season,” York said. “I thought it was the best we have played as a group this season and we played hard. Sure we came in down 1-0, and we could have easily just it played out, but when we started back up we played like it was 0-0 again and that was good to see. They didn’t back down and we had our chances to score.”

Louisburg (4-9-1) did have its opportunities to find the back of the net. The Wildcats had eight shots on goal, including three chances that were close to the 6-yard box.

Senior T.J. Svoboda got past the De Soto defender for a 1-on-1 with the goalie near the box, but the shot sailed just wide of the goal.

Junior Noah Juarez slides to knock the ball away from a Baldwin player Monday in Louisburg.

Junior Noah Juarez also had a couple different opportunities on deflections near the goal, but his shot either hit off a De Soto defender or was saved by the goalie. Cale Schneider, Herman Knipp and Christian Scholtz also had shots on goal.

“It seems like have been saying this all season, but we are getting plenty of chances to score, we just need to get better at finding the back of the net,” York said. “It will come and then I think it will just open up for these guys. We are really close, but haven’t turned the corner yet. It will happen though.”

The Wildcats also limited De Soto to just five shots on goal and had one of their better games defensively, according to York.

“I thought Michael (Minster) really made some nice saves in goal for us,” York said. “I thought defensively we played pretty well and I thought it was our best overall game as far as our ability to defend and then attack. We did both things well and hopefully we can turn things around in our next two games. We are probably the best 4-9-1 team out there and I know we are better than our record shows. We just have to put it together.”

Louisburg will try and snap its 3-game losing skid today when it travels to Eudora. The Wildcats will return home one final time Tuesday when it hosts Ottawa on senior night.

Wildcats fall to Baldwin

Louisburg had a chance to avenge a loss from earlier in the season Monday when it hosted Baldwin, but the Wildcats couldn’t muster the offense.

Baldwin scored a goal in each half to pull away for a 2-0 victory over Louisburg. The Wildcats had their chances, especially in the second half.

After Baldwin scored a goal in the 15^th minute to take a 1-0 lead into halftime, the Wildcats put together several shots on goal in the second half. Their best chance came early on when the Baldwin goalie was called for a penalty after picking up the ball in the box after it was passed to him by his own teammate.

Louisburg had an opportunity just inside the 18-yard box, but the kick was knocked away by the De Soto defense. With 28 minutes left in the game, T.J. Svoboda blew past his defender for a shot in the box, but went wide left.

Just three minutes later, midfielder Grant Ryals sent a pass up to teammate Christian Scholtz, whose shot sailed just over the post.

Baldwin put the game away later in the second half when Noah Buckley scored his second goal of the game on a 1-on-1 opportunity with the goalie.

Louisburg comes up short against Spring Hill

Louisburg had another shot at revenge from a loss earlier in the year when the Wildcats hosted Spring Hill on Oct. 6.

It didn’t work out the way the Wildcats had hoped.

Spring Hill put the game away with two second half goals in the 4-1 victory over Louisburg. The Broncos jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first half and never looked back.

Louisburg did cut Spring Hill’s lead in half when Grant Ryals’ shot hit off the right post and into the net in the 37^th minute.

Four minutes into the second half, Spring Hill scored after the Wildcat defense misplayed a ball and then scored again a few minutes later on a cross into the box.