Wildcats record road shutout of Ottawa

By Andy Brown
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Updated: April 25, 2024

***Louisburg senior Lola Edwards beats a defender to the ball during a match earlier this season.***

OTTAWA — The injury bug has caught up with the Louisburg girls soccer team as the Wildcats currently have several players dealing with bumps and bruises, which isn’t ideal for a team that isn’t very deep.

Despite that, Louisburg has won four of its last five matches and one of those came Tuesday on the road as the Wildcats shutout Ottawa, 3-0.

It wasn’t the prettiest of performances according to head coach Ben York, but he was pleased to see his team battle through some adversity.

“We played a little uninspired at times, but I don’t want to take away from the win as they are all important this time of year,” York said. “We probably had 80 percent of possession but we didn’t finish a lot of chances.

“We are battling through some stuff physically and we aren’t really deep. We had some girls that came in the game that gave us some good minutes. Every team has stuff going on at this point in the year, but we want to be trending upward toward the end of the season and this win helped with that.”

Louisburg got on the board early as senior Lexi Hampton put the Wildcats up 1-0 in the first half. Junior Baileigh Johnson followed with another goal and the Wildcats led 2-0 at halftime.

Junior Rowan Yows sealed the win in the second half with her first goal of the match and the Wildcats improved their record to 8-2-1 on the season, which is the best on the East side of Class 4-1A.

“We had a ton of shots,” York said. “Ottawa just packed it in and made it hard for us to score at times. We just tried to go through the defense instead of taking some shots from distance. We need to be more patient, but it is tough when the defense just packs it in on you.”

Louisburg’s defense played well as goalie Macy Lemke earned the clean sheet, while senior Hailey Sword was active in the back to lead the Wildcat defense.

The Wildcats will try and make it two straight wins tonight as they host Eudora in a Frontier League match. Start time is set for 6 p.m. at Wildcat Stadium.

“Definitely not disappointed with this win, but I want to see us on the uptick and accelerating toward the end of the season,” York said. “Eudora is going to be a competitive game for us, we have to come to play.”

Wildcats tie Augusta, roll Chanute

Last week had its ups and downs for Louisburg, but after it all, the Wildcats avoided the loss column.

Louisburg earned a 0-0 tie against Augusta last Friday in Emporia, but recorded a 9-0 victory at Chanute on April 16.

Against Chanute, Baileigh Johnson, Lexi Hampton and Rowan Yows each scored two goals. Mena Fercho also found the back of the net, while Faith Sewell and Lila Edwards each scored their first varsity goal.

“It was really good,” York said. “One of the things I have been about, is we really share the load on who gets the scoring. How we approach the game is, if we are doing it properly, is about being unselfish and kids are just as interested in assists as goals. We got Macy some time outside of the goal and that was cool too.”

The Wildcats battled injuries against Augusta as Hampton, Yows and Fercho all had to leave the match at one time, but neither team could score in regulation or the two overtimes periods.

“We were the better skilled team and they were more disciplined and physical,” York said of Augusta. There was a lot of pulling and grabbing and that wore us down pretty good. We weren’t at full strength. Hailey played a really good game in the back and Macy made some really good saves too that kept the game scoreless.”