Wildcats roll Ottawa for second straight win

Louisburg sophomore Morgan Messer settles the ball Monday during the Wildcats’ home match with Ottawa. The Wildcats scored seven first half goals on their way to a 10-0 victory.

Even with the cloudy, cold weather, the Louisburg High School girls soccer team had no problems heating up the nets Monday against Ottawa.

The Wildcats exploded for seven first half goals on their way to a 10-0 victory over the Cyclones at Wildcat Sports Complex, and earned their second straight win in the process.

“We did a good job executing,” Louisburg coach Kyle Conley said. “Sometimes when we play a team that likes to play a high line, it is tough to stick at what we are good at and what we do. We broke down a little bit, and weren’t very disciplined at times, but it is good to get a lot of kids involved and try kids in new spots. Now we have to focus on the next one.”

Sophomore Mackenzie Scholtz had another big night for Louisburg as she finished with four goals and added two assists to lead the Lady Cats. It is the second four-goal game of the season for Scholtz.

Freshman Olivia Barber also came through for the Wildcats with two goals and an assist and sophomore Erin Lemke also scored a pair of goals.

Sophomore Avery O’Meara and senior Bailey Belcher added a goal each, while sophomore Trinity Moore and senior Savannah Reinhart also had assists on the night.

The Wildcats (4-2) didn’t waste a lot of time getting on the board when Belcher scored the game’s first goal two minutes into the contest. Louisburg did suffer a setback when Belcher had to leave the game with an injury and didn’t return.

“It stinks because Bailey and Mackenzie were just starting to get their chemistry together by running off each other and it was all good, but then Bailey had to sit a little bit,” Conley said. “But the girls who were in there did a good job of finding where they needed to be and doing our jobs. It was a good win.”

Scholtz more than picked up the slack as she reeled off three of the next four Wildcat goals. Barber also scored on an assist from Scholtz to make it 5-0 just 15 minutes into the match.

Sophomore Erin Lemke tries to make a move toward the goal Monday against Ottawa.

Barber and Scholtz each finished the first half with a goal to give the Wildcats a 7-0 halftime lead and they never looked back.

O’Meara ripped a hard shot in the box to put Louisburg up by eight in the second half. Lemke then followed with back-to-back goals to end the game with 13 minutes remaining.

Although they didn’t have many chances, the Wildcat back line of Camdyn Clark, Trinity Moore, Hannah Straub and Kaitlyn Lewer turned away Ottawa’s advances. Goalies Shay Whiting and Carson Buffington combined for the clean sheet.

“I thought the backs really played well and Shay only had like one shot in the first half,” Conley said. “Defensively we played with a lot of intensity, and even though it was really cold out, we did a good job of moving the ball and finding feet.”

The schedule will get much tougher tonight as the Wildcats will travel to Spring Hill today for a 6 p.m. start. Spring Hill has just one loss on the season and Conley knows it will be a challenge.

“It should be a big game for us,” Conley said. “It is a huge game for league and Spring Hill is playing really well right now. They have four or five really good freshmen that are playing well, plus they have their returners that are just exceptional. We will be playing on their new field, which is big and spacious, and hopefully we are at full strength. We will have our hands full.”