Wildcats get revenge over Baldwin in battle of top 10 teams

Louisburg senior Braden Yows (left) celebrates with his teammates after his goal in the second half of Thursday’s 2-0 victory over Baldwin in Louisburg.

The last time Louisburg squared off with Baldwin on the pitch, the Wildcats were going through a bit of a rough stretch.

Following their setback to the Bulldogs a couple weeks ago, the Wildcats had lost three of their last four games and were in a bit of rut.

Since that time, Louisburg is a totally different team – healthier and more confident.

“One win changes everything,” Louisburg coach Kyle Conley said. “They are back to joking around again and just being themselves. Life is good right now.”

It showed Thursday when the Wildcats hosted Baldwin for a Frontier League match in a battle of state-ranked opponents. No. 3 Louisburg got the best of No. 7 Baldwin this time with a 2-0 victory.

“It was nice,” Conley said of the win. “Last time we knew it wasn’t a league game, so we rested some injured guys up and sat some of them. We are still banged up. We got two back, but lost two more. Boys played hard and they were a lot more focused and poised this time around. 

“We didn’t play well. We didn’t play our game and we let Baldwin dictate the style of game, but when we did we looked really good and we broke them down a lot. They don’t go very deep on their bench and we wanted them to chase us and wear them out a little bit.”

The Wildcats (7-3-1) got the scoring started late in the first half when junior Colin McManigal got to a loose ball near the goal and chipped it past the Baldwin keeper to give Louisburg a 1-0 lead at halftime.

“Colin just did a great job of hustling down there for the loose ball and the keeper cheated a little bit and he was able to hit it near post,” Conley said. “He is playing so hard right now. With him and Ethan (Ptacek) up top, they just put so much pressure on the other team. They are doing a good job with that.”

Then with 15 minutes left in the second half, senior Braden Yows got into the scoring column. Yows, who had to sit out with an injury the last time the two teams played, took space in the middle of the field and had a shot near the 18 that found the back of the net.

Yows was a problem for the Bulldogs to defend in the midfield as he led Louisburg with five shots on the night.

“I was trying to get him to attack more because he had all the space,” Conley said of Yows. “I told him to just go at them, and when he does that, he is tough to defend. He had another real good opportunity earlier in the game, but just didn’t get enough on it. His goal, he went at them pretty hard and it was a nice shot.”

Defensively, the Wildcat back line limited the Baldwin opportunities, but goalie Mack Newell turned away the rest as he earned the clean sheet and had five saves, including four in the second half on a couple of dangerous opportunities.

Michael Seuferling, Hunter Rogers, Matthew Sword and Toby Espina-Roca played tough in the back as did midfielder Isaac Guetterman.

“For the most part we made them shoot from deep, but Mack is a shot stopper,” Conley said. “That last ball that got through, the Baldwin kid had a free run, but Mack just did his job and ate it up. It was big for us. He is playing well and I think he is getting back into the flow of things after missing some time earlier in the year. 

“Hunter and Michael did a really good job in the back and kept them locked down. I was proud of all those boys on the back line just hustled and busted their butt out there.”

Louisburg will try and make it four wins in a row Tuesday as it tries to exact more revenge. The Wildcats travel to Spring Hill as they hope to avenge a 3-1 loss earlier in the season.

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