Wildcats get first-ever win over Spring Hill

Freshman Avery O’Meara battles a Spring Hill player for a 50-50 ball Thursday during the Wildcats’ home contest against the Broncos. Louisburg defeated Spring Hill, 2-0, for the first time in program history.

 

The Louisburg High School girls soccer team accomplished several “firsts” during its inaugural season last year.

The Wildcats accomplished so many that there aren’t many “firsts” left to be had for the second-year program.  However, there was one that stuck out.

Louisburg wasn’t able to pull off a win against Spring Hill a season ago and was the only Frontier League team the Wildcats weren’t able to beat.

They can now check it off the list.

The Wildcats got a goal in each half and downed the Broncos, 2-0, on Thursday in Louisburg. It also gave Louisburg its fourth consecutive win after starting the season off with a scoreless tie and a loss.

“I know we are only a second-year program, but Spring Hill was the only team on our schedule that we haven’t gotten a win against,” Louisburg coach Kyle Conley said. “Our goal was to show everyone that we can play a little bit. They had us on our heels quite a bit and we did a good job of taking away good opportunities, but they had a lot of good chances and we are glad they didn’t find the back of the net.”

Both teams traded close calls during the two 40-minute halves as both sides watched as shots sailed either just wide or hit off the post.

A tie at halftime appeared evident, but the Wildcats put together a good scoring opportunity and converted. Junior Bailey Belcher had the ball in the middle of the field and passed it off to freshman Mackenzie Scholtz, who made a couple moves, dribbled into the box and scored with five minutes remaining the first half.

Louisburg (4-1-1) had several more opportunities to increase its lead and Belcher was involved in a handful of them. The Wildcat midifleder just missed the back of the net several times, including one shot that hit off the post and rolled toward the line only to have the Spring Hill defense knock it away.

With 20 minutes remaining in the game, Belcher finally got one to go as she took a shot from the top of the box, which ricocheted off the Spring Hill goalie and Belcher was able to collect the rebound and sneak it in for the team’s second goal.

“It is relieving,” Belcher said. “We have been working really hard at practice and it is all kind of paying off right now. We are all still pretty out of shape, but we have been working hard and everything has been getting better. I see so many improvements over a year ago and it is so great.

“There were a few miscommunications on who should go get the ball and occasionally we stepped back a little bit and we shouldn’t have, but overall I think with the passes and everything I think we were able to work really well with each other.”

The Wildcats put together a bend-but-don’t-break performance out of their defense as the Broncos were able to put together quality shots on goal, but none found the back of the net as junior goalie Shay Whiting earned another shutout.

Louisburg’s defense of Bryn O’Meara, Camdyn Clark, Kaitlyn Lewer, Hannah Straub all tightened down when they needed to, while midfielders Madisen Simpson and Avery O’Meara all won key 50-50 balls and stayed in front of the Spring Hill attack.

“They did a really good job marking up and that is something that we have been working on,” Conley said. “We have been working on trying not to stab and dive at the ball because Spring Hill is a team that wants to cut the whole time. We did a good job of standing them up, but there were a few times where we did dive in and they made us look silly and luckily for us they didn’t score. Fortunately we came out on top and we did just enough to win.”

It is about to get really busy for the Wildcats as they play their first of three games this week, beginning tonight with a home match at Wyandotte. Junior varsity is slated to begin at 4:30 p.m., and the varsity will follow.

Louisburg will then host Harmon on Wednesday and will travel to Basehor-Linwood on Friday.

“I think every night we are getting better and every night we are solving a problem for the night before,” Conley said. “Then a new one arises, but it is just one of those things where we have to keep learning and growing. We are playing a lot of freshmen and sophomores and Spring Hill is really young and talented as well. We just have to keep grinding and evolving, but it was a good night.”