Wildcats shutout Eudora for fourth straight win

By Andy Brown
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Updated: September 28, 2016

Andy Brown / Louisburg Sports Zone

Louisburg senior Korbin Hankinson has his eyes on the endzone as he tries out outrun a Eudora defender Friday at Wildcat Stadium. Hankinson scored a pair of touchdowns in the Wildcats’ 33-0 win over Eudora.

There was a lot to be excited about following Louisburg’s 33-0 victory over Eudora on Friday at Wildcat Stadium.

The defense recorded its second shutout of the season and the Wildcats improved their record to 4-0 on the year. Despite all that, the second half curbed Louisburg’s enthusiasm on what appeared was going to be a perfect night.

“We will take the shutout, but we really didn’t play very well in the second half,” Louisburg co-head coach Jeff Lohse said. “We had a couple turnovers and a lot of penalties — and penalties killed us all game. They are just mental mistakes, so we will learn from those and get them fixed.”

Louisburg fumbled twice in the second half and penalties stalled several drives after the Wildcats scored 25 unanswered points in the first half. Even the players realized it wasn’t the way they wanted to finish the game.

Junior Dalton Ribordy pushes a Eudora runner back Friday in Louisburg.

“It feels pretty good to win,” senior lineman Mason Koechner said. “We came out good in the first half, but man we had a lot of mistakes in the second half. The score shows that we did well, and our defense held up, but we could have done a lot better.”

The Wildcats looked sharp early as they opened the game with a long drive that eventually led to a touchdown. Louisburg used a 13-play, 68-yard drive to go up 7-0 after a 1-yard touchdown run from senior Korbin Hankinson.

Eudora was then forced to punt on its next drive, but the Cardinal punter mishandled the snap and Louisburg senior Ben Hupp was able to recover the fumble and give the Wildcats a short field. Louisburg was able to take advantage as sophomore Austin Moore scored on a 2-yard touchdown run to go up 13-0.

Right before the end of the first quarter, the Cardinals turned the ball over on downs and Wildcat senior Jake Hill gave Louisburg good field position to start the second quarter following a 36-yard run. The next play, quarterback Grant Harding found fellow senior Thomas San Agustin who hauled in a 40-yard over-the-shoulder catch for a touchdown and 19-0 lead.

Moore recovered Eudora’s second fumble of the game later in the first half and San Agustin later ran it in for a 3-yard touchdown to put the Wildcats up 25-0 at halftime.

San Agustin accounted for 113 total yards and a pair of touchdowns, while Hankinson had a team-high 81 yards on the ground and two scores, including a 30-yard pass from Harding in the fourth quarter to seal the win.

Harding had 159 yards of total offense to go along with his two touchdown throws as he guided the Wildcat attack. He also got good protection from his offensive line of Koechner, T.J. Dover, Dalton Frazier, Garrett Lowry and Dustyn Rizzo.

“I thought our offensive line and running backs did a nice job in the first half and Korbin made a nice catch in the second half,” Lohse said. “Grant threw a couple nice balls for touchdowns, which was good to see because when teams start stacking the box against us we have to be able to throw the ball a little bit and he did a good job of that.”

The Wildcats had trouble getting anything going on offense in the second half thanks to penalties and two turnovers.

Louisburg’s defense did keep the shutout intact as it limited Eudora to 173 yards of total offense and the Cardinals never threatened to score.

Senior Lyndon Smith led Louisburg with 10 tackles, while Moore and Koechner added nine and eight, respectively. Hill also finished with seven stops in the win.

“Yeah we got out to a big lead, but we feel like this team is good enough that we need to learn how to finish now and we are not finishing ball games,” Lohse said. “That is what we are going to work on this week and moving forward.”

Louisburg will go for its fifth straight win Friday when it hosts Baldwin for homecoming. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.

“We are all pretty excited with what we have done so far,” Koechner said. “We are excited with what is to come and we know we are doing well, but we know we can do even better.”

LOU 13 12 0 8 – 33

EUD 0 0 0 0 – 0

First quarter

L: Korbin Hankinson 1 run (Nick Hull kick)

L: Austin Moore 2 run (kick failed)

Second quarter

L: Thomas San Agustin 40 pass from Grant Harding (run failed)

L: San Agustin 3 run (run failed)

Fourth quarter

L: Hankinson 30 pass from Harding (San Agustin run)

STATISTICS

OFFENSE

RUSHING – Korbin Hankinson 12-81; Thomas San Agustin 10-67; Jake Hill 7-64; Grant Harding 12-61; Will Ridley 1-11; Austin Moore 4-8

PASSING – Grant Harding 6-10-98

RECEIVING – Thomas San Agustin 2-46; Korbin Hankinson 1-30; Christian Tosterud 2-13; Ben Hupp 1-9

DEFENSE

TACKLES – Lyndon Smith 10, Austin Moore 9, Mason Koechner 8, Jake Hill 7, Nick Hull 5, Dustyn Rizzo 5, Garrett Lowry 5, T.J. Dover 4, Dalton Ribordy 4, Connor Green 3, Grant Harding 3, Thomas San Agustin 3, Blue Caplinger 3, Will Ridley 2, Kiefer Tucker 2, Christian Tosterud 1, Tucker Batten 1.