Louisville coach Tyrone Shorter has wanted his team to remained focus throughout the season no matter the opponent and that can be somewhat of a chore when a team has already wrapped up a Class 4A, Region 4 championship with a week to spare.
His team had no problem staying focused on Friday night, however. The Wildcats came out against Kosciusko as if the game was their final one of the season and whipped the Whippets, 55-7, to end the regular season with a 9-2 mark and a perfect conference record for the second year in a row.
“We wanted our guys to come in and treat it like a playoff game,” Shorter said. “We started to gel together in all three phases of the ball game and that’s where we want to be at this point in the year. We wanted to start off fast and we did.”
It was a game where the Wildcats were once again well-balanced on the offensive side of the ball. Drea Shumaker was efficient with 214 passing yards on 10-of-15 and two touchdowns and rushed for 21 yards and two more touchdowns. David Haynes had six catches for 117 yards and Niselbyion Kirk had two catches for 62 yards, both of which were for touchdowns.
The team rushed for 125 yards.
While the offense has gotten much of the headlines this season, it was again a dominating effort by the Wildcat defense. It was the eighth time in 11 games this season that Louisville has held its opponent to single digits. They forced three turnovers in this game, had three sacks and got an interception rom Joshua Nunn. Kristian Hopkins led the way with 13 tackles in the game to lead the way.
For a defensive specialist like Shorter, his defense is living up to his standard in his first year as coach at Louisville.
“Our defense has been playing really well all year, even against 5A and 6A schools,” Shorter exclaimed. “My staff is doing a great job and we’ve got some guys where we want them to be. We want to be able to adjust to anything that offenses give us. We’re fast and physical and play smart football. They’re playing extremely hard for us.”
The defense set the tone in the opening possession of the game forcing a fumble on a long drive from the Whippets that ended at the 5 yard line. Hopkins scooped up that fumble and ran it back for a touchdown, though it was called back. Michael Foster would get them into the end zone himself, though with a score to make it 7-0.
The two teams traded scores to end the quarter with Shumaker hitting Kirk for a 26-yard passing touchdown and the Wildcats led 13-7 after one frame. The second quarter would be all Wildcats.
Shumaker ran for two touchdowns and threw another one and Jaquez Thames had a run of his own as the Wildcats put the game away with a 42-7 halftime lead. LHS scored a touchdown on every possession of the first half to get in full control.
In the second half, the Wildcats didn’t have to do too much work. Thames scored his second touchdown on an 18-yard run and Hopkins’ strip sack led to a 40-yard scoop and score by Ty Cooper for the 55-7 final.
