Since a narrow loss to Starkville, coach Tyrone Shorter has preached to his players about dominating the rest of the season.
Shorter has narrowed it down to every player on the team dominating each rep that they take against the opponent, knowing that if that takes place the Louisville Wildcats will be victorious. The results have been five-straight wins with four of those coming in district play.
Class 4A, Region 4 play has been especially dominant for the Wildcats as LHS has averaged 43 points a game offensively and surrendered just 8 points a game. The latest victim in Region 4 was Leake Central who the Wildcats handled easily, 40-0, last Friday night.
“We’ve dominated all three phases of the game every week. It’s not a superstar on this team. It’s more of a team this year other than individual play, and that’s one of the keys,” Shorter said.
He continued, “Our seniors are holding the younger guys to a high expectation with accountability, and I feel like we’re more together this year. These kids remember the feeling that we had last year in the playoffs when we came up short. We’re doing what we need to do as coaches, and they’re doing what they need to do as players. They’ve bought in at what we need to do.”
Defense has always been the calling card for the Wildcats, but the offense has gotten a lift in the last few weeks. Shorter brought in Keyarrion Jackson as the starting quarterback around the start of division play, and business has picked up for that unit with four-straight games of 40 or more points.
Jackson continued to lead the offense on Friday going 9-for-17 passing for 162 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception and also rushed 13 times for 62 yards. Jaden Tripplett gave the team a big game on the ground with 18 carries for 105 yards and two scores, and Jykevious Goss, Swahili Earby, and Kamron Tripplett all had touchdown receptions.
Strangely enough, the Wildcats couldn’t score until the second quarter. Shorter wasn’t pleased with how the team came out of the gates on either side of the ball as things ticked into the second quarter without a score.
“At the beginning, I thought we came out slow, but we picked it up. We made careless mistakes like offsides and false start penalties, but our guys settled down and started playing our ball,” Shorter said. “Since we started division play, we started that mindset of there’s no tomorrow and dominate our opponent. It’s 11-on-11, and everybody has to dominate their position. I want our kids to dominate.”
LHS scored two touchdowns in each of the final three quarters for the 40-0 blowout getting 14 points in the second quarter and 13 in the third and fourth. The defense pitched its fourth shutout of the season and had an incredible 23.5 recorded tackles for loss with 9.0 sacks in the stat sheet.
Caden Thompkins and Kendon Sanders led the team in tackles with 10 each. Dijaylen Miller had 6.0 tackles for loss and 2.0 sacks, and the secondary made plays again with two interceptions in the game coming from Laterrious Haynes and Kenneth Hill. Travon McDonald also picked up a fumble in the win.
The Wildcats (8-1, 4-0 Region 4) reclaimed a district title that was taken from them a season ago by West Lauderdale in a tough game. The team has handled its business without any issues this season, but there is one game to go to finish off another undefeated district schedule.
Kosciusko is the finale of the regular season as the Wildcats will travel down the road to take on the Whippets. Coach Casey Orr’s team is building into a contender as he took a three-win team in year one and won six games last year with a close loss to LHS. This season, the former Noxapater head man has the team off to its best start since 2015 with a 7-2 record and 3-1 mark in Region 4. A win on Friday claims the No. 2 spot in the district.
“They’re a well-coached team. Coach Orr and his staff do a great job,” Shorter said of the Whippets. “They’re big and have a lot of athletes. I know that they’re going to come out and play hard and try to beat us on Senior night, so we’ll have to be ready.”
