Despite winless week, Wildcat soccer ready for regionals

By Andy Brown
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Updated: May 19, 2021

Andy Brown / Louisburg Sports Zone

It wasn’t the ideal way for the Louisburg girls soccer team to end its season.

The Wildcats recorded a 1-1 tie on the road at Ottawa last Tuesday, before falling to Spring Hill, 7-0, at home on Thursday. Louisburg would have loved a win in one of those matches, but finished its regular season with a 9-6-1 record.

Still, despite the struggles, the Wildcats find themselves in good positions as they earned the No. 4 seed in the Class 4-1A regional playoffs and will host their next two games if they keep winning.

The Wildcats will host Bishop Ward (3-13) at 5 p.m. today at Wildcat Stadium. If they advance, they will meet the winner of No. 5 Eudora (9-6-1) and No. 12 Atchison (4-12) on Thursday for the championship.

“Girls did a great job of playing together and working last week,” Louisburg coach Kyle Conley said. “We didn’t back down, nor did we give up. This group of girls have something to prove this week.

“The playoffs are what we play the season for. We are ready and will play as hard as we can. We like where we are going into the playoffs, but have work to do. We will focus on Bishop Ward in our first playoff game and take it from there.”

Against Ottawa, Louisburg had numerous chances to put the game away, but couldn’t find the back of the net. For the game, the Wildcats had 17 shots on goal.

Ottawa took a 1-0 lead 15 minutes into the first half, but the Wildcats countered ight before halftime. From 25 yards out, freshman Lola Edwards hit a shot that sailed past Cyclone goalie to tie it up.

A second half and two overtimes later, the game ended there and the Wildcats weren’t able to get the road win.

“We truly just didn’t finish at all,” Conley said. “We had a ridiculous amount of opportunities but couldn’t find the back of the net. We absolutely dominated the game but struggled to execute. The girls played hard and were aggressive. It is the same story all year. In our six losses, we outshot the other team in three of those games.”

Edwards led the attack with six shots on goals and freshman Lexi Hampton added four. Olivia Barber finished with two and Bree Gassman had the team’s lone assist.

The Wildcats had to end their regular season schedule against Frontier League champion Spring Hill on Thursday and the Broncos were tough to hang with.

Louisburg had just two shots on the night as Spring Hill came away with seven goals.

“Spring Hill is a really talented team,” Conley said. “Their first 11 players are incredible. We played extremely hard the entire game and didn’t let up. Unfortunately, we had some let downs that led to them scoring.

“The girls battled and didn’t quit. In a game like that, it is very easy to give up and not try, but the girls just kept playing. We were able to play almost the majority of the girls to get them experience going forward.”