Knipp notches hat trick in win over Paola

Senior Herman Knipp (right) celebrates one of his three goals with Noah Juarez during Thursday’s league match in Paola. The Wildcats defeated Paola 5-0 to improve their record to 8-2 on the season.

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PAOLA – It took Herman Knipp less than three minutes to put Paola on its heels and the rest of the Louisburg High School boys soccer team was able to deliver the knockout blow.

Knipp scored two goals in under three minutes and helped the Wildcats to a 5-0 victory over their rival Thursday in Paola. In turn, Louisburg improved its record to 8-2 on the season and have now won four straight games.

“Rivalry games are tough,” Louisburg coach Kyle Conley said. “Paola is much better than their record (0-10) shows and they play so hard. We preached all day that we can’t get outworked and we have to get all over them. We kept high-pressuring them and we got two really good looks early. That just got us going and then we could relax a little.”

Two minutes into the match, Knipp put Louisburg on the board with a goal and then seconds later added another score on an assist from Scott Murphy. The scored stayed 2-0 at halftime, but the Wildcats were far from done scoring.

Senior Noah Juarez found the back of the net early in the second half to put the Wildcats up three goals and Knipp then finished off what was his best game of the season. Knipp recorded his first hat trick as he tallied his third goal with 13 minutes left in the match.

“It felt absolutely amazing,” Knipp said.  “After getting the two in the first couple of minutes, I was pushing the whole game to get my third and possibly a fourth. It feels great.

“I think we played as a team a lot better than we did the first time against Paola. We really worked more as a unit than we did individually. We passed the ball and made everything work together like it should.”

Junior Raistlin Brewer capped the scoring with a goal in the final minutes to seal the win for the Wildcats. Freshman Landon Johnson, senior Curran Conklin and Juarez also had assists in the victory.

The score could have been even more lopsided as the Wildcats peppered the Paola defense with several shots on goal. Sophomore Jonathan Ventre, senior Ty Martin, junior Grant Ryals and Juarez also had shots that were saved, or sailed just wide of the net.

Although it wasn’t tested much, the Wildcat defense of Kris Light, Jacob Benne, Conklin and Kolten Ragan and Calvin Cassida limited Paola’s chances, while goalies Ambrose Stefan and Ignacio Huesa combined for the shutout. The Louisburg defense hasn’t given up a goal in four straight matches.

“The back line is talking a lot and working well,” Conley said. “We have a lot of kids playing a lot of minutes, which I like because I want them to gel a little bit because some of them are playing positions they haven’t played before. We are playing really good right now.”

The Wildcats have found a lot of success on the pitch as they have already eclipsed last year’s seven win total with five games remaining left in the regular season.

“I think the boys have had chips on their shoulder this season because they thought they let games get away last year that they should have won,” Conley said. “We are just focused and the guys are fired up right now. We just keeping pushing them and they keep responding. We are getting some great results and playing good soccer right now.”

The games will get more important quickly for the Wildcats. Louisburg, Spring Hill and De Soto are all tied atop the Frontier League standings with one loss each.

Louisburg will travel to Spring Hill on Tuesday and then will host De Soto on Friday in a week that could help determine the league champion.

“Spring Hill is going to be the biggest game of the year for us,” Conley said. “You could say that it could be for the league title. Spring Hill, us and De Soto each have just one loss so it is wide open. We just have to take care of business and see what happens and hope things fall our way.”

 

Louisburg downs Tonganoxie in overtime

In regulation, neither team wanted to give in. The match between Louisburg and Tonganoxie was a scoreless one after 80 minutes on Sept. 27 at Tonganoxie High School.

However, less than a minute into the overtime, Louisburg senior Noah Juarez decided he had enough.

The Wildcat midfielder got the ball on the 18, beat two defenders and flicked the ball past the Tonganoxie goalkeeper for the game-winning goal. It left many on the Wildcat sideline stunned.

“The kids didn’t know how to react in an overtime game and I told them just to run out there,” Louisburg coach Kyle Conley said. “They all went and dogpiled him and it was cool to see.”

Louisburg went up against a Tonganoxie team that featured a big, strong midfield, but the Wildcats were able to outshoot the Chieftains 8-2 on shots on goal in regulation. However, it took just one to win the game in overtime and defeat a Tonganoxie team that won eight of its first nine games.

“Tonganoxie is a physical, strong and fast team,” Conley said. “Their midfield is probably one of the best midfields we have seen all year. The first 20 minutes we were on our heels a little bit, but then we just took over and we had good chance after good chance.”

 

JV wins pair of games

The Louisburg High School junior varsity soccer team earned a pair of shutouts last week as it defeated Paola 2-0 on Thursday and also downed Tonganoxie 6-0 on Sept. 27.

Against Paola, Chris Williams broke open a scoreless game with a goal in the second half and Jarod Rose followed with another to get the win for the Wildcats. Eli Minster had an assist, while Ignacio Huesa and Thomas Arnett combined for the shutout.

Minster had a big game against Tonganoxie as he had two goals and two assists in the win. Jacob Anderson, Jon Paul Totta and Rose also scored for the Wildcats. Huesa and Arnett once again combined for the shutout.