On a night where Louisville honored all nine of its state championship teams, this year’s edition of the Wildcat dynasty looked primed to join the fraternity.
Every state championship team was represented on Friday night and many great Wildcat coaches and players looked on in anticipation of a team that is not only defending a trophy of their own, but has aspirations of repeating. There was no disappointment to be found at R.E. Hinze Field on Friday as the Wildcats gave a beating to Yazoo City to finish out the non-conference slate at 4-2 in a 49-0 blowout win.
“I thought we came out and played really well. We wanted to focus on being balanced and have our mindset on there being no tomorrow. We want to treat every game like it’s a playoff game,” head coach Tyrone Shorter said. “We could meet Yazoo City again in the playoffs, so wanted to play well.”
It was a game that Louisville dominated from start to finish starting with a defensive turnover and a drive that was capped by Michael Foster’s six-yard run just a few minutes into the ball game. From there, it was nothing but Wildcats.
It was a 28-0 lead after the first quarter and a 42-0 lead at the half as the Wildcats left no doubt and a running clock came into play. The 326 yards were skewed due to that running clock and the team did that on just 32 plays.
Drea Shumaker was solid in the first half completing 7-of-11 passes for 134 yards and a touchdown with four carries, 40 yards and two more scores. Niselbyion Kirk had three catches for 92 yards and a touchdown and Foster had six carries, 32 yards and two scores in a shortened game.
After that 7-0 lead, the Wildcats went back to work. The defense snuffed out three-straight plays and gave the ball right back to the offense who saw Shumaker score his first of two touchdowns on the ground from five yards out. His second came on the next possession as he had a 26-yard run and made it 21-0 with still 5:36 left in the quarter.
The first stanza finished with a fumble recovered in the end zone on the next defensive possession and it was 28-0 before Yazoo City could catch a breath. It was the second-straight week that the Wildcats had come out with a great start which is what Shorter has been hoping for from his team.
“We’re trying to get in their mind to start fast. If you start slow in the playoffs you can be in trouble so we want to start fast,” Shorter said. “The last couple of weeks we did that and hopefully we can continue to do that.”
Kirk started the second quarter by breaking off a bit 75-yard catch and run for the touchdown and Foster scored his second touchdown run with 4:06 left in the half to make it 42-0. From there, it was all about the backups.
Backup quarterback Jace Hudspeth got some work in the second half and threw a 25-yard touchdown to get the team their final score of the day as the sophomore went 2-for-2 in his time on the field for 51 yards and a score. Camden Sanders also got to play quarterback in the game as did every single player on the roster.
“You have to build depth when you’re making a run for a championship, so it was important to get guys reps especially the quarterbacks,” Shorter said. “We’re just trying to get them experience and they’re all deserving of it. I was glad to see that we played a lot of kids. We played everybody on the roster.”
The Wildcats have been more than seasoned to this point and they’re now ready to play the games that matter. They’ve gone up against Noxubee County, Starkville, and West Point and they feel they’re just about at full strength with Class 4A, Region 4 play here this week.
