Wildcats bounce back with shutout of Eudora

By Andy Brown
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Updated: April 14, 2022

Andy Brown / Louisburg Sports Zone

Louisburg junior Bree Gassman battles Eudora’s Jayla Erpelding for a 50-50 ball Monday at Eudora High School.

EUDORA — Fresh off its first setback of the season, the Louisburg girls soccer team wanted to make sure one loss didn’t turn into two.

The Wildcats traveled to Eudora on Monday and got right back on the winning track as they shutout the Cardinals, 2-0. It was their sixth win of the season and all of them have come by shutout.

“I thought we were ready to go,” Louisburg coach Kyle Conley said. “They played hard and with a high amount of energy. That is how we do things and I thought the girls transitioned pretty well knowing Eudora is going to be a solid team.”

Louisburg’s defense once again rose to the challenge as the Wildcats limited Eudora to just six shots on goal, while senior goalie Sierra Hahn earned the clean sheet.

***Junior midfielder Adyson Ross sends the ball downfield Monday against Eudora.***

The back line of freshman Evyn Richardson, senior Ruth Minster, junior Brianne Kuhlman and senior Sammy McDaniel didn’t allow the Cardinals to get many good looks on goal.

Midfielders Adyson Ross and Hailey Sword also shadowed one of Eudora’s top players, Jayla Erpelding, most of the night.

“Jayla is a good player and has a massive right leg,” Conley said. “We just wanted to take her away and not give her free looks and I think we did a pretty good job of that all night. I thought we did a good job of taking away their two forwards as well and we just didn’t give them many opportunities. Defensively we stayed sound and did our job for the most part.”

Offensively, the Wildcats (6-1) were on the attack for most of the night. Louisburg had 12 shots on goal and got a couple of them to find the back of the net.

Louisburg scored both of its goals midway through the first half. A Wildcat pass into the box resulted in an own goal from Eudora, and then a few minutes later, senior Reese Johnson crossed a ball into the box for the second score.

“Eudora always plays hard – they play really hard,” Conley said. “We did a good job of producing where we need to go. We had chance after chance, and I think we put so much pressure on them, we were able to get an own goal and a goal. We just kept pressing them to try and put them in bad spots. I would have really liked to score a couple more in the second half when we got them inside the six, but it will come. The girls played hard, did their job and got us a good result.”

***Senior defender Sammy McDaniel tries to settle the ball Monday at Eudora.***

Johnson led the Wildcats with five shots on target, while sophomore Lola Edwards had three and fellow sophomore Lexi Hampton finished with two.

Eudora clogged up the middle of the field, so Louisburg attacked from the outside, which gave them several good opportunities on goal.

“Eudora took away the middle and we just burned them on the outside most of the time,” Conley said. “The second half we tried to attack down the middle and it just wasn’t there. There will be also be games where teams take away the outside on us and let us cut down the middle. Eventually teams are going to take that away and that will let us have some good runs and really be dynamic.”