It was almost exactly a year ago when the Louisville Wildcats were playing a big playoff ball game in the rain. This one was on the road in the third round against Greenwood and Tyrone Shorter’s first Wildcat team came up short in tough conditions. Those conditions were pretty rough this season as LHS hosted Itawamba AHS for the Class 4A North State championship, but they were going to finish the job this season. Behind a hot start to the ball game and another dominating performance by the defense, the Wildcats won a game in less than ideal conditions 18-6. The victory pushed them into the state championship game at Jackson where they are playing for a 10th gold ball on Saturday. “Hats off to our coaches, they always do a good job. I’m a defensive minded coach and I think that defenses win championships. Our defense was stingy and that’s what it’s going to take,” Shorter said. “We have a very young offense with nine new starters that didn’t go through a spring. I’m proud of those kids. It was ugly (Friday), but with the weather we had, I’ll take it every night.” LHS is now hoping to become the third team in the history of the state of Mississippi to win 10 state championships in the MHSAA. The Wildcats are the only team to hold titles in the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. Most impressive is that they’ve never lost when they go to the big game but they have a tough task with Poplarville (11-3) on Saturday morning. LHS defeated the Hornets two seasons ago to with the state championship in Hattiesburg but Shorter knows that it will be tough to defend the option offense that they present. With nearly 4,000 rushing yards this season and 58 touchdowns, Poplarville will be a big hurdle in the way of number 10. “This is what I came here for,” Shorter said. “To be back in the state championship is what I came here for to lead this program to a state championship. This is the only program to win a state championship in every decade. We’re going to come up with a great game plan. I expect this to go down to the wire.” With the conflict of a Mississippi State home game on the schedule initially, the state championships were moved back to Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jackson for the season. The Wildcats (13-1) will play on Saturday morning at 11 am. On Friday night game played right into Louisville’s hands considering the conditions. They controlled the ball routinely and ran it 57 times for 275 yards and two scores. Emory James had 29 of those carries for 150 yards and Jacorey Coleman finished with 28 carries for 125 yards and two touchdowns. Jace Hudspeth managed the ball game well at quarterback completing 7-of-12 passes for 75 yards and a touchdown pass to Christian Rush. That group got things started early thanks to a touchdown by Coleman on the opening drive from 10 yards away and an interception from Shontez Thames set up another quick score as Hudspeth would find Rush. A 12-0 start in the first 7 minutes of the game was just how Shorter would have drawn it up. “I told our offense and our team that we had to start fast. We knew that the weather would be bad and our kids did everything we asked them to do,” Shorter said. “I challenged the offense to score on the first drive to set the tone and we did. Offensive line did a heck of a job and our running backs ran the ball really well.” After Coleman scored his second touchdown of the first half, the Wildcats took a commanding 18-0 lead into the locker room and it felt even healthier than that based on how dominant the defense had been. The Indians did get a second half touchdown, but the game was never really in doubt as the Wildcats booked another state championship trip. Ty Cooper was a big reason for the defensive success. The senior Mr. Football in 4A in the state was routinely wrecking things in the backfield and ended the game with a strip sack on 4th down during the Indians’ final offensive possession. He was in Hattiesburg and played sparingly two years ago as a sophomore when the Wildcats won it all then and he’s ready to get back. “With the experience, I know that we have to go in and train hard from day one. Poplarville will be a good ball club and will be physical. We’ve got to match their mindset and punch them like they punch us,” Cooper said. “I’m excited. My number one goal was to get to State and win it.” That goal was shared by coach Shorter as well as he took over at LHS with the sole purpose of putting more gold balls in the trophy case. Shorter himself is no stranger to the state championship game. He won five rings at Noxubee County with four of those coming as the head coach.
