Louisburg stays unbeaten with overtime win against Tongie

Louisburg’s Braden Yows celebrates his goal off a corner kick with his teammates Tuesday against Tonganoxie in Louisburg. The Wildcats are 9-0-1 on the season.

Just call them the ‘Cardiac Kids.’

For the second time this season, the Louisburg boys soccer team found itself down two goals – not the ideal position to be in to find success. The Wildcats trailed by a couple scores to Tonganoxie at home Tuesday, and for the second time this season, they found a way to respond.

Louisburg rallied to force overtime and eventually downed Tonganoxie, 3-2, on a goal by Cade Gassman four minutes into the extra period. The win improved the Wildcats’ record to 9-0-1 as they continued their special season.

“They are trying to give me a heart attack,” Louisburg coach Kyle Conley said. “We have such a young team that I think they are too naïve to understand what is really going on. At times we just gave up a back side goal early, and then a penalty kick, and we found a way to get back in it. It is almost like they want to get down so they can find a reason to play hard. I was really proud that they never gave up and kept fighting.”

Down 2-0 midway through the first half, the Wildcats were able get some momentum going into halftime as Gassman scored his first of two goals on the night as he flicked a shot past the Chieftains goalie.

Louisburg had 13 shots on goal in the game and many of those game in the second half and in overtime. Braden Yows, Gassman, Ethan Ptacek, Colin McManigal, Treston Carlson, Ethan Showalter and Landon Johnson all had looks at the goal.

The Wildcats got one to go in midway through the second half when Louisburg was awarded a corner kick and Yows took the shot. It sailed around the Chieftain goalie and curved into the back of the net for the equalizer with 17 minutes left in regulation.

“We talked about the keeper and his positioning a little bit and we talked about giving it a go at the back stick and letting someone make a play,” Conley said. “Braden definitely let it go there and it was a great shot. I am not sure if he meant to do it or not, but I don’t care at this point. We will take it however we can get it.”

Johnson, a senior midfielder and captain, played in his first game back from injury and nearly gave his team the lead late in regulation. His direct kick outside the box just missed the target and the two teams went to overtime.

 Then four minutes into the extra period, another corner kick was sent in by Yows but his shot was knocked down by the Tongie goalie. Gassman, and several other teammates, were around the play and the Louisburg freshman was able to tap it in for the game-winner.

“Neither team did a good job of clearing the ball off the line on corner kicks, so we knew if we just got into the mix and could get it knocked down that anything could happen,” Conley said. “Cade just kept bulldogging and playing hard and was able to get that last one to go in.”

Even down by two goals early into the match, Conley never thought his team was out of it, especially when the Wildcats started to turn things around late in the first half.

“The kids played hard, they stayed focused and they knew what their job was,” Conley said. “We found a good combination to play with in the last 20 minutes and we definitely took over the last 10 minutes of the first half.

“The second half I think we dictated the flow of play. We gave them a couple counter attack looks, but we had the pressure on them the whole time. We knew the goals were going to come, we just didn’t know when.”

Louisburg is still without a loss on the season and the Wildcats will try and keep it that way tonight when they host Baldwin for a 6 p.m. start. They will try to avenge a tie to the Bulldogs last week, which so far this season, has been the Wildcats’ only setback.

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