Last Friday night’s ball game with Yazoo City looked slightly different than Louisville’s match up against the same team just over a month prior.
Coach Tyrone Shorter said coming into the ball game that Yazoo City had been much improved since that 49-0 drumming that finished out non-conference play for the Wildcats. Perhaps the Wildcats were taking Yazoo lightly, but this one was much closer as they struggled through the first half before taking care of round one in the Class 4A playoffs and advancing with a 30-12 victory.
“Looking at them on film, I knew that they were a much-improved team,” Shorter said of Yazoo City. “They did a lot of things different than the last time we played them. They came to play and we knew that they had talent. They had a really good game plan.”
Wildcat fans were nervous after a half of play as the two teams were neck and neck, but the home team found a way to take a one-point lead and expand on it in the second half by out-scoring Yazoo 17-0.
It was aided by the rushing attack that the Wildcats put together as Michael Foster had a huge night with 19 carries for 239 yards and two touchdowns. Drea Shumaker was 8-of-17 passing for 76 yards and an interception.
It was the defense that was the story of the game, however, as the unit was once again stout on Friday night. After surrendering the 12 points in the first half, Shorter’s unit made some changes to how they were running things and shut out the visitors the final two quarters as they had done in the four quarters the previous time the two teams met.
“We went in at halftime and the adjustment that we made was with our personnel,” Shorter said. “They caught us with some different mismatches against our defense. We changed some of our personnel around.”
It was a 7-6 first quarter game as Yazoo City scored on its opening possession and Shumaker would run in a touchdown late in the quarter to take the one-point lead. The defense would get the next score thanks to Jykeveous Hibbler’s fumble return to make it a seven-point game but Yazoo City scored again to cut it to 13-12 at the half.
It would be all Louisville in the second half. Foster set the tone out of the locker room with two runs within 30 seconds of the clock starting and it was 21-12. Shontez Thames intercepted a pass almost immediately on the defensive side of the ball and then special teams got a block a few minutes later that led to a safety making it 23-12.
Foster finished off the back-breaking quarter with a 65-yard burst through the secondary making it 30-12 and that where things stood as the final buzzer sounded.
The Wildcats (10-2) enter Friday night’s round two with Shumaker having thrown for 1,837 yards, 14 touchdowns and five interception and run for another 390 yards and 11 touchdowns. Foster eclipsed 1,000 yards last week and is up to 1,192 with 14 touchdowns having averaged 8.2 yards per rush.
Kaleb Mosley leads the receiving corp with 59 catches for 813 yards and five touchdowns. On defense, Kristian Hopskins has racked up 125 tackles and an incredible 21.5 tackles for loss. HIbbler has 15.5 tackles for loss and a team-high 9.5 sacks while Tyrell Thames leads the way with four interceptions.
All of those players need to be better, according to Shorter. He wants his team to come out as they did in every Class 4A, Region 4 game and dictate the game in the first half.
“I want them to start fast. We started really slow last Friday. I don’t know if it was Senior Night or what, but we did not start well,” Shorter said. “We’ve got to take care of the football. We had three turnovers in our first three possessions and that can’t happen. We’ve got to be smarter and play Wildcat football like we’ve been playing.”
Next up for the Wildcats, they’ll be back at home on Friday night to take on Pontotoc. The Warriors are 6-5, but they started the season 0-4 and have won six of the last seven games including finishing second in Region 2 with the only loss coming at undefeated Itawamba AHS.
A win would pit the Wildcats up against the winner of Greenwood and New Albany, with Greenwood currently being one of the teams to beat in 4A. Before that match up could come, Shorter’s squad has to take care of business.
“You can throw out the records when you hit the playoffs,” Shorter said of Pontotoc. “They have a good football team, they’re well-coached and are going to play hard. They run a pro-style offense and a lot of stretch plays like the NFL does and they’ve got good size up front. We’ve just got to come out and hit them early and use our speed against them. We’ve got to tackle well against them defensively.”
