Penalty kick helps give Louisburg revenge win over Spring Hill

Louisburg senior Braden Yows celebrates a goal with his teammates earlier this season. Yows converted a penalty kick in Tuesday’s game against Spring Hill as the Wildcats left with a 1-0 victory at Spring Hill High School.

SPRING HILL — For the second time in less than a week, the Louisburg boys soccer team had an opportunity to avenge a loss from earlier this season.

Once again, the Wildcats took full advantage.

Louisburg traveled to Spring Hill on Tuesday and left with a 1-0 victory to exact some revenge from a loss just a couple weeks ago. The Wildcats did the same last Thursday when Louisburg defeated Baldwin under the same circumstances.

“It was really nice to get a solid win against a really good team, and a team that beat us earlier in the year,” Louisburg coach Kyle Conley said. “The boys came out and really controlled the game for the first 55 minutes. We moved the ball well and had a lot of nice chances, but just could not capitalize. We were taking what they were giving us and did a great job of getting quality looks. 

“It was really nice to get a little revenge from the previous game that we absolutely dominated but couldn’t get one to go. The last 15 minutes or so, we stopped playing our game and just defended our butts off. It was definitely not what we wanted to do, but it was what we had to do because our shape fell apart.”

Both teams had their opportunities early on, but the Wildcats struck first thanks to a Spring Hill mistake. The Broncos were called for a handball in the box and the Wildcats were awarded a penalty kick.

Senior Braden Yows slotted the ball in the lower right post to give Louisburg an early lead in what turned out to be the game-winning goal 25 minutes into the match.

“The PK was really nice,” Conley said. “We were really pressing them and had a massive amount of pressure on them. We did really well of moving the ball and attacking and I felt the hand ball was a result of that. It took a lot of pressure off of us and we executed well on that opportunity.”

Spring Hill outshot Louisburg 17-11, but the Wildcats had chances to increase that lead as Cade Gassman had two shots on goal, while Colin McManigal, Yows and Gavin York also had shots on target.

Although the Wildcats couldn’t get them to go, their defense held the line as junior goalie Mack Newell earned the clean sheet 

“The last 15 minutes we really defended nonstop,” Conley said. “The line ‘Bend don’t break’ really fit the last 15 minutes. Mack played really well and so did our back line. We showed that we can absolutely defend and defend a team with talent and speed all over the field.”

Louisburg, which is ranked No. 3 in the state, will try for its fifth straight win tonight when the Wildcats host No. 6 Eudora.