Hampton’s hat trick leads Wildcats past Lansing in opener

Freshman Alexis Hampton splits two Lansing defenders during Louisburg’s season opener Tuesday at Wildcat Stadium. Hampton scored three goals and led the Wildcats to a 6-0 win over the Lions.

Kyle Conley wasn’t sure how his Louisburg girls soccer team was going to look in its season opener.

The Wildcats have a roster filled with young, inexperienced players, and for the first five minutes of their match with Lansing on Tuesday, they looked the part.

However, those nerves quickly went away and the Wildcats let their play shine through in a big way.

Louisburg scored five second half goals on its way to a 6-0 victory over Lansing at Wildcat Stadium and it was what the Wildcats were hoping for in their first time out.

“When you look at how we played from the first five minutes to the last five minutes, I think you saw us improve quite a bit,” Conley said. “We were definitely having some accidents on the field for the first five minutes until we finally we realized that we were okay.

“The girls are just competitors and they were battling out there. We were able to get a lot of kids out on the field, I think like 20 or 22 of them, so that was good to get everyone out there for the first time. After the first half there was a lot less yelling and everyone seemed a lot more comfortable.”

A bulk of those goals came from players who had yet to score a varsity goal, including freshman Alexis Hampton.

The Louisburg forward opened the game with a goal in the first half, and then found the back of the net two more times in the second. Not only were those her first varsity goals, but it was her first hat trick in her inaugural outing as a Wildcat.

Freshman Lola Edwards and sophomore Tehya Harvey also had their first varsity goals in the second half. Senior Olivia Barber accounted for the other when she opened the second half with the score.

“For them those were their first varsity goals ever, so I thought they all did a good job,” Conley said. “Lexi really pounded the ball and had some great finishes and I am excited to watch those girls go and improve. It always makes it fun.”

Barber also had an assist on the day, as did sophomore Bree Gassman and junior Reese Johnson. It was Johnson who provided the Wildcats with many opportunities on their 10 shots on goal.

“Reese did a great job,” Conley said. “As a junior, she is just torching it up and down the line and she just gets it. She knows her responsibility and she did exactly what we wanted her to do from her outside-mid spot for this game. She executed to the fullest and gave us so many good chances.”

Louisburg had 23 shots against the Lansing defense, with five of those coming from Hampton. Barber, Johnson and sophomore Adyson Ross each had three, while sophomore Nova Ptacek, senior Emma Christy and Harvey each had two.

The Wildcat defense also did its job as they limited Lansing to just two shots and junior goalie Sierra Hahn was able to get the clean sheet.

The Wildcats will try for their second straight win at 5:30 p.m. tonight when they host Atchison at Wildcat Stadium.

“Obviously there are some things that we have to work on, but I thought it was good to see how the girls battled and competed,” Conley said. “It was good to finally play someone other than ourselves. We are still trying figure some stuff out, but this was only the second day that I have actually had my entire roster here, so we are piecing it together as we go. We have one down and hopefully we can keep it going.”