De Soto hands Louisburg its first loss of season

By Andy Brown
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Updated: September 19, 2017

Andy Brown / Louisburg Sports Zone

Louisburg senior Garrett Lowry stuffs a De Soto running back at the line of scrimmage during Friday’s contest in Louisburg. De Soto shutout the Wildcats 41-0 to hand them their first loss of the season.

From the very first snap of the game, it was obvious that it wasn’t going to be the night the Louisburg High School football team wanted.

In a battle of undefeated teams, De Soto came into Wildcat Stadium on Friday and showed why it is the No. 3 team in Class 4A-Division I.

De Soto forced a fumble on the opening play and returned it for a touchdown. It wouldn’t get much better for Louisburg after that.

The Wildcats had a tough time slowing down the De Soto offense in a 41-0 loss in Louisburg.

“De Soto is very good,” Louisburg coach Robert Ebenstein said. “They are very aggressive and they play tough. They have great coaches and there is no doubt that they beat us in all three phases. They played very well and they are a good team.”

The De Soto defense made it difficult on the Wildcat offense to get anything going. De Soto held Louisburg to just 53 yards of total offense and the Wildcats had a hard time approaching the redzone.

De Soto played with three linemen on the line of scrimmage and used their four linebackers to blitz from all different directions, making it difficult for the Louisburg offensive line to pick up protections.

“We knew that is what they were going to do, they just did it very well,” Ebenstein said. “It is something that we really can’t mimic in practice with their size and speed. Their three down linemen were very impressive kids, their outside linebackers are solid and their inside linebackers read well. They are overall just a sound team.”

Louisburg’s Noah Larson hits De Soto quarterback Bryce Mohl just as he releases the ball Friday.

On the other side of the ball, the Wildcats had a difficult time slowing down the De Soto offense as it scored 21 points in the first quarter and then added another touchdown to start the second.

Louisburg’s defense turned away De Soto two different times in the second quarter when Matt Holloway recovered a fumble near the goal line and Desmond Doles intercepted a pass shortly before halftime. Brayden Gage also intercepted a pass later in the contest.

“When you go down 28-0 early in the second quarter, that is tough,” Ebenstein said. “We shut them out the rest of the quarter, but it is one of those things where we have young players, and young coaches, and we have to figure it out. I am glad it happened now and we can learn from it, instead of just surviving and then not figuring it out later.

“We have plenty of room to grow and this is the first time a lot of these kids have experienced something like this, so it will be interesting to see how we respond. I don’t doubt their effort. We played hard, but De Soto is just very good. I am not sure we are quite there yet, but there is a lot of season left and a lot of time to get better.”

Senior running back Will Ridley looks for some running room Friday against De Soto.

Austin Moore led the Louisburg defense with six tackles on the night from the middle linebacker spot and sophomore lineman Garrett Harding was next with four stops.

Louisburg will try and get back on track this Friday when it travels to Eudora for its first of two-straight road contests. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.

DES 21 7 13 0 – 41

LOU 0 0 0 0 – 0

SCORING SUMMARY

First quarter

D: Brayden Brummer 18 fumble return (Ethan Rodriguez kick)

D: Bryce Mohl 29 run (kick good)

D: Connor Strouse 32 pass from Mohl (kick good)

Second quarter

D: Mohl 11 run (kick good)

Third quarter

D: Trevor Watts 40 run (kick good)

D: Leo Oplotnik 1 run (kick failed)

STATISTICS

RUSHING – Austin Moore 14-24; Madden Rutherford 5-3; Blue Caplinger 2-minus 2; Brayden Gage 2-minus 10. Total: 23-15

PASSING: Madden Rutherford 9-20-38

RECEIVING: Desmond Doles 3-29; Brayden Gage 1-4; Ben Minster 1-4; Will Ridley 2-3; Austin Moore 2-minus 2.

TACKLES: Austin Moore 6, Garrett Harding 4, Christian Tosterud 3, Will Ridley 3, Desmond Doles 3, Mitchell Drew 2, Kiefer Tucker 2, Noah Larson 2, Will Smith 2, Garrett Lowry 2, Brayden White 2, Blue Caplinger 1, Matt Holloway 1.