Wildcats get out to fast start in road win over Eudora

Louisburg junior Lexi Hampton leaps over the Ottawa goalie during the team’s match last Tuesday at Wildcat Stadium. The Wildcats earned wins over Eudora and Ottawa last week.

EUDORA — Goals have been easy to come by the last four matches for the Louisburg girls soccer team and that continued Thursday at Eudora.

The Wildcats scored four first half goals on their way to a 5-1 victory over the Cardinals at Eudora High School. It was the fourth consecutive victory for Louisburg and the Wildcats have looked good during that stretch.

In those four wins, the Wildcats have scored 27 goals and Louisburg coach Ben York has seen a lot of progress from his team in recent weeks.

“We are trying to move the ball better and get more people involved,” York said. “In doing so, if we can do that effectively against better teams, we will be able to hang with most teams. It was fun to see us knock the ball around, especially in the first half, against a team in Eudora that worked hard and put pressure on us. I was very pleased. We came out with high pressure, had good passes and had them on their heels.”

Louisburg (9-3) got in the scoring column early when sophomore Rowan Yows found the back of the net on an assist from junior Lexi Hampton. A few minutes later, the Wildcats doubled the score when junior defender Ellery Allen hit a shot at the top of the 18 after an assist from junior Lola Edwards.

Hampton added a goal of her own to make it 3-0 and sophomore Riley May scored her first varsity goal of the season to make it a 4-0 advantage for Louisburg at halftime.

Senior Adyson Ross added another goal on a breakaway in the second half to all but seal the win for the Wildcats. Eudora scored to end the shutout, but could get no closer.

The Wildcats outshot the Cardinals 17-7 on the night and had 12 corner kicks to go along with eight free kicks.

“I really thought we played well,” York said. “We had a lot of possession and took a lot of shots. Eudora is a quality team and they really fight hard. After the game, their coach mentioned to me about how well he thought our girls played and how talented they are, so that is always nice to hear from someone outside of the program.

“The second half we got a little too comfortable and didn’t put as much pressure on them as we needed to. We made a poor decision on a clearance, which led to their goal, but that was a mistake we will make 1-in-100 times. Other than that, we did a lot of good things.”

Defensively the Wildcats have seen improvement throughout the year as they have given up just two goals during this four-game winning streak.

Louisburg’s defense had to mark up one of the Frontier League’s top forwards, Jayla Erpelding, and York believes they did a good job and he has seen improvement in that group throughout the year.

The starting back line of Jaden Bentz, Allen, Hailey Sword and Brianne Kuhlman have started to bond together to give that protection to goalie Macy Lemke.

“We are a little inconsistent still at times,” York said. “When we playing against a top striker, we struggle staying marked up. Against Eudora, at least for the first half, it was what I liked to see. We were disciplined marking up. Jayla likes to roam around, but the girls did a good job communicating and making sure someone had her.

“Jaden has really come along in the last three games and did a good job when she marked Jayla. She has been one of our better defenders, so she has earned the position, which is nice to see.”

Louisburg will try and make it five in a row tonight as the Wildcats travel to Basehor-Linwood. The match is set to begin at 6 p.m.

Wildcats shutout Ottawa in home match

The win over Eudora last Thursday was the end to what was a positive week for Louisburg.

It started last Tuesday at home against Ottawas the Wildcats shutout the Cyclones in impressive fashion, 7-0.

Louisburg scored four goals in the first half and Rowan Yows got it started as she found the back of the net on an assist from Bree Gassman 13 minutes into the match.

Just two minutes later, Gassman got in the scoring column as she snuck it past the Ottawa goalie on a corner from Adyson Ross. Ellery Allen then made it 3-0 when she scored off a defected shot.

Lexi Hampton capped the first half scoring when put the Wildcats up, 4-0, on a breakaway opportunity.

Lola Edwards and Ross got in on the scoring in the second half and Hampton picked up her second goal of the match. Edwards and Hampton also had assists in the final 40 minutes.

Junior goalie Macy Lemke earned the clean sheet.

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