Louisburg rolls Fort Scott behind Bila’s five goals

By Andy Brown
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Updated: August 30, 2017

Andy Brown / Louisburg Sports Zone

Louisburg junior Brock Bila makes a Fort Scott defender miss before one of his five goals Tuesday during the Wildcats’ season opener against the Tigers. The Wildcats rolled to an 11-1 win.

Brock Bila hasn’t had a lot of time to acclimate himself to the Louisburg High School boys soccer program.

The transfer from Blue Valley Northwest is in his first year with the Wildcat team, but all that didn’t seem to bother Bila during Louisburg’s season opener against Fort Scott.

Bila, a forward, scored five goals and helped the Wildcats to an 11-1 win over the Tigers on Tuesday in Louisburg. It was a great start for the Wildcats and their newcomer.

“Brock has been working really hard to figure out our system and expectations of his position,” Louisburg coach Kyle Conley said. “He did have quite the debut. He did a very nice job making adjustments and playing unselfish towards the middle to end of the game. He is still learning and will still improve quite a bit throughout the season.”

Bila was one of many positives for the Wildcats in their opener as they took the attack to Fort Scott and never let up. Louisburg scored four second half goals, but it really picked up the pace in the second half as it scored seven times to end the game with the mercy rule.

“It is always a great feeling to start the season off with a win,” Conley said. “I felt we started off playing a little uptight and nervous. I felt we forced the issue a little bit and kids were trying to do too much. After about the first 20 minutes of the game we settled down and started to play our game. We moved the ball and made a lot of diagonal runs. I was pleased with the adjustments we made throughout the game and how we played together and as a unit.”

The Wildcats (1-0) got good play out of its midfield as four different players scored from that spot. Sophomore Landon Johnson scored a pair of goals, while seniors Grant Ryals, Raistlin Brewer and junior Jacob Anderson also found the back of the net.

Senior defender Kyle Allen also got in on the scoring fun with the game’s second goal in the first half. Senior Jarod Rose, junior Eli Minster, Johnson, Ryals and Andersen each added an assist as well.

Louisburg sophomore Ryan Haight slides in to take the ball away Tuesday against Fort Scott.

Louisburg accomplished all this with having several players out due to injury and Conley liked what saw from his team overall.

“I felt that the boys played as a unit and played hard,” Conley said. “With being short on substitutes because of injuries, we are playing with more of a next man up attitude. I felt that Ryan Haight played really, really well. He seemed to be all over the field making plays. Grant did a very nice job controlling the pace of play starting our possession.”

Bila got the scoring started with a goal eight minutes into the contest and Allen followed it up with another goal just a few minutes later. Brewer had the game’s third goal after he ended up with a rebound off a header from Eric Vazquez near the net and put it away.

Ryals then took a free kick from just outside the box and scored to make it a 4-0 game at halftime.

The Wildcats seemed to put it altogether in the second half as Bila scored four times along with two goals from Johnson and another from Andersen. Johnson’s second goal envoked the mercy rule.

“We really made a lot of adjustments at halftime and talked about the looks we need to see,” Conley said. “The kids did a very nice job listening and letting the ball do the work. I feel that was one of the best aspects for us to take away from that game. We did a very nice job adjusting to their style of play and we took advantage of what they gave us.”

Louisburg will try for its second consecutive win Thursday when it travels to Ottawa for its first road contest. Junior varsity will begin at 4:30 p.m. and varsity will follow at 6.