A regular season with two total losses against two great teams was nothing to get upset at for Tyrone Shorter but he has bigger aspirations for the Louisville Wildcats.
The biggest of those aspirations is winning it all for the second year in a row and the Wildcats came into the Class 4A state playoffs last week as the team with a target on its back. Cleaning up mistakes was the main concern for Shorter as they took on the Shannon Red Raiders and there were still some that took place but were overcome for the win.
The Wildcats fumbled the ball away three times but it wasn’t enough to deter from how dominant they were. It was a game that LHS controlled from start to finish and a running clock was implemented in a 37-12 victory.
“The only thing that I was kind of disappointed in was that we turned the ball over three times. It’s uncharacteristic of our backs fumbling because we haven’t done that all year,” Shorter said. “It’s not a big concern, but you can’t do that in the playoffs. Besides that, our kids played a good game all around. We were focused and we played really well.”
The Wildcats came out early and had a 8-0 lead but it was trimmed up immediately following with a Red Raider touchdown cutting it to 8-6. The two teams traded touchdowns in the first quarte and into the second before the Wildcats really turned it on.
Leading 15-12 after touchdowns from Jacorey Coleman and Emory James, LSH extended that lead out with a 70-yard run from James midway through the second frame. In the final 7 minutes, the Wildcats would score three touchdowns as Jace Hudspeth followed that up with a 12-yard pass to Jarvis rush and with 43 seconds remaining in the second half, Hudspeth found Jaden Triplett for another score to make it 37-12.
The clock would run from there and the Wildcats got a chance to put a quick victory in the books. While the fumbles were a pain for Shorter, the team cleaned up pre snap penalties as those have been a problem for the Wildcats this season.
“I thought our kids did a great job,” Shorter said of the penalties. “We had seven total penalties and we had one pre snap penalty. I was really proud of our kids on that. We’re going to have some calls go against us, but it’s the ones that we can control that we have to clean up.”
The first playoff game was at home but now it’s time to go on the road. Shorter has always said that in order for teams to win a championship, they have to win big games on the road and this week is a big win.
Clarksdale awaits with a history of great teams and great players and the Wildcats are good again this year at 8-1 and 4-0 in their district. Shorter believes it’s another opportunity for his team to accept, but they’ll have to play well to advance.
“They’re really good. They’re big, physical and athletic. We have our work cut out for us. We’re so young defensively and struggle against teams that can run the football and they can run the ball pretty good,” Shorter said. “They’re big up front and have some big running backs. We’ve just got to buckle down.”
