Louisburg shuts out Heritage Christian for home win

Louisburg defender Camdyn Clark clears the ball away from the Heritage Christian attack Thursday in Louisburg. The Wildcats defeated Heritage Christian 8-0 to improve their record to 3-2 on the season.

 

Since it has returned from Spring Break, the Louisburg High School girls soccer team has faced a difficult schedule.

The Lady Cats have suffered losses to defending Frontier League champion De Soto, and Piper, which is currently undefeated to start the season. It has been and up and down start to Louisburg’s season so far, but it went on an upswing Thursday.

Louisburg responded from a loss to Piper the day before to blank Heritage Christian in an 8-0 victory at the Wildcat Sports Complex. The Lady Cats (3-2) used five first half goals to get out to a big lead and the Louisburg defense preserved the shutout.

Senior Bailey Belcher and sophomore Erin Lemke led the Wildcat attack with a pair of goals each, while four other Wildcats would find the back of the net as well.

Sophomore Mackenzie Scholtz put Louisburg on the board early with a goal four minutes into the match. Belcher followed with back-to-back goals to give Louisburg a 3-0 advantage with 23 minutes left in the first half.

Savannah Reinhart put together two big plays to give the Wildcats even more momentum going into halftime. Reinhart scored her first goal of the season with a lazer shot in the box with four minutes left in the first half.

The Louisburg junior was on the other end of a goal just a couple minutes later as she crossed the ball to freshman Olivia Barber, who scored and gave the Wildcats a 5-0 halftime lead.

Lemke kept it going in the second half as she recorded two goals and added an assist. Sophomore Morgan Messer also got into the action as she found the back of the net to help secure the win for the Wildcats.

Louisburg dominated possession as it outshot Heritage Christian 16-5 and earned five corner kicks. Even with Heritage’s five shots on goal, the Wildcats weren’t in danger of losing their shutout.

Goalie Carson Buffington got the start for Louisburg and recorded all five saves as the Wildcat junior earned the clean sheet.

Louisburg returns to action today when it hosts Ottawa and will hit the road Thursday when the Wildcats will face undefeated Spring Hill.

 

Rally comes up short in loss to Piper

Louisburg put itself in a big hole Wednesday on the road at Piper High School.

The Wildcats found themselves down three goals early in the second half and were forced to try and dig out of it. They almost got there.

Louisburg recorded a pair of late goals, and almost got the game-tying score, but came up short in a 3-2 loss to the Pirates.

In a rematch of the state quarterfinal game, in which the Lady Cats won in overtime, Piper scored a goal in an evenly played first half. The Pirates took control of the match after halftime with two quick goals to go up 3-0.

With 20 minutes left in the game, Bailey Belcher recorded Louisburg’s first goal on an assist from Mackenzie Scholtz and then Scholtz added one of her own thanks to an assist from Kaitlyn Lewer.

Louisburg had several looks at the goal in the final five minutes, but couldn’t get the tying goal past the Piper defense.