Louisburg Sports Zone
Don't Miss
Home / Football / Wildcat football falls short on road in loss to Tonganoxie in season debut

Wildcat football falls short on road in loss to Tonganoxie in season debut

image_pdfimage_print

TONGANOXIE – In a back-and-forth contest filled with momentum shifts, Louisburg needed one more positive thing to go its way.


Unfortunately for the Wildcats, it never came.

It was the first varsity game for several Louisburg players Friday in Tonganoxie. On a team that returned just four starters from a season ago, the Wildcats came up just short in a 20-14 loss to Tonganoxie.

“I felt like we competed well,” Louisburg coach Drew Harding said. “There were a couple of times in the game where there was a big momentum swing in their favor and we continued to battle and give ourselves a chance at the end. We didn’t execute very well in key moments and so that is something we will need to clean up as the season progresses.”

After a scoreless first quarter, it was Tonganoxie that struck first as it drove down the field on scored on a 2-yard touchdown by quarterback Bodee Maslak. The Wildcats, however, answered right back.

Louisburg quarterback Max Amren reeled off several big runs during a 7-minute drive for the Wildcats and eventually scored on a 15-yard run to tie the game after a Blaise Vohs extra point.

However, with under two minutes left in the first half, the Chieftains put together a couple big plays and drove down the field to score another touchdown right before halftime and took a 14-7 lead.

Tonganoxie made it a two score game with a touchdown on its first drive of the second half, but the Wildcats answered again – this time through the air. Amren connected with John Guetterman for a long pass play, which set up another pass from Amren to Martin Soto in the endzone, which was eventually called for pass interference.

That set up a 12-yard touchdown run from Bryce Thompson that cut the Tonganoxie lead to just six.

The Wildcat special teams and defense then stepped up to stop a pair of Tonganoxie drives. Senior Rickey Giles blocked a field goal and was picked up by Mathias Wright.

After a Louisburg turnover that stopped the ensuing drive, the Wildcat defense struck again, this time Thompson forced a fumble as the Tonganoxie runner was inching toward the endzone and Guetterman recovered it.

Thompson was all over the place defensively for the Wildcats as he registered a team-high 12 tackles, while Guetterman had nine and Giles had eight.

“Defensively I thought we played pretty well except for two drives,” Harding said. “The drive at the end of the first half and the drive coming out of halftime we didn’t play with the kind of effort we need to play with. We will need to continue to work on the fundamentals of tackling and getting off blocks.”

The Wildcats had one more opportunity with under two minutes left in the contest. Amren connected with Soto for a 47-yard gain to the Tonganoxie 25. However, from there, the Wildcats would turn the ball over on downs.

Amren led the Wildcat offense with 161 yards total offense, including 110 yards through the air. Soto and Guetterman finished with 60 and 52 yards receiving, respectively.

“I felt offensively we were kind of up and down throughout the night,” Harding said. “We would have flashes of quality football and then have moments were we didn’t excute well. I think consistency will be a big point of emphasis for us moving forward offensively.”

Prime Accounting

The Wildcats will try and get that first win of the season this Friday as the Wildcats host Paola at Wildcat Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.

LOU       0               7               7               0 — 14

TON    0          14        7          0 — 20

Second Quarter

T: Bodee Maslak 2 run (kick good)

L: Max Amren 15run (Blaise Vohs kick)

T: Maslak 1 run (kick good)

Third Quarter

T: Blake Riedel 1 run (kick failed)

L: Bryce Thompson 12 run (Vohs kick)

STATISTICS

RUSHING – Max Amren 12-51; Blaise Vohs 8-33; Bryce Thompson 2-15; John Guetterman 3-6.

PASSING – Max Amren 13-22-110

RECEIVING – Martin Soto 2-60; John Guetterman 5-52; Blaise Vohs 5-32; Rickey Giles 1-10

TACKLES – Bryce Thompson 12, John Guetterman 9, Rickey Giles 8, Murphy Adams 4, Max Amren 3, Gage Feldkamp 3, Michael Foote 3, Cole Heinrich 2, Martin Soto 2, Johnny Hendrickson 2, Colin Schleicher 2, Mathias Wright 1, Ayden Spradling 1, Will Norton 1