There was no sugarcoating last week’s season-opening loss to Noxubee County for head coach Tyrone Shorter.
Louisville’s first-year head man was highly disappointed in the 2-0 shutout loss to his former school and he expected better out of his team. The Louisville Wildcat faithful expected more out of them as well as LHS is coming off of a MHSAA Class 4A state championship and had high hopes to contend for it again.
So the team went back to work. From Sunday to Thursday, Shorter really liked his team’s preparation and when payday came on Friday, they delivered with, quite possibly, the win of the week in the state of Mississippi.
Behind a relentless offensive approach and some critical stops on defense, the Wildcats handed West Point a shocking loss at R.E. Hinze Stadium in 38-28 fashion. It was the first loss for the Green Wave since the three-time defending Class 5A state champions were defeated by Starkville early last year.
“Last week I just came in and challenged the kids. I told them that they could either quit and tuck their tail or they could learn from their experience and move forward,” Shorter said. “They came back to practice and worked hard. Noxubee County didn’t beat us, we beat ourselves. We showed them that and we came back and I felt good all week about it.”
They scored zero points in week one against the Tigers, but the Wildcats proved on Friday just how potent that offense really can be when it is at full strength. They put up 437 yards of total offense against the Green Wave and had a huge night passing out of Drea Shumaker.
The senior quarterback was 19-of-26 for 341 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions. Shumaker put on a show but Shorter was also impressed with the work from senior wide receiver Kaleb Mosely who was on the receiving end of most of those big plays catching nine passes for 165 yards and three touchdowns.
“We were going to use him on both sides of the ball but we knew that he could be a playmaker for us on offense,” Shorter said of Mosely. “The offensive coaches put the ball in his hands and we let Drea Shumaker be Drea Shumaker and big things happened.”
Another key for the Wildcats was a quick start and they hit the Green Wave in the mouth early. Midway through the first quarter, Rankevious Johnson got a sack and recovered the fumble to give LHS the ball and Shumaker and Mosely began their big game with an 8-yard touchdown pass to go up 7-0 with 2:45 left in the first quarter.
Just before the end of the first quarter, the Green Wave knotted it up at 7-7 and the back and forth affair was one. Following a Roper Stoots 30-yard field goal in the second quarter, the Wildcats extended that lead with Shumaker’s big pass play to Niselbyion Kirk for a 26-yard score to push it out to 17-7 with 7:35 left in the half. West Point closed it to 17-14 at halftime with a score in the final minute.
The Green Wave looked like the momentum was all the way on their side after they took the first lead of the game in the third quarter at 21-17 but Louisville showed its resiliency on the next possession. Shumaker and Mosely went to work once again on a 35-yard touchdown pass and Louisville went back on top 24-21 heading to the fourth quarter.
A Ty Cooper interception was another big play by the defense that shifted the momentum and LHS’ offense took control of the game as a successful drive into the red zone ended with Michael Foster plunging into the end zone from three yards away to go up 31-21.
Louisville would have to fend off one final punch from West Point in the fourth quarter as the Green Wave scored to cut the lead to 31-28 with under 9 minutes left and they had to make a long drive to do it. Starting from their own 5 yard line, the Wildcats marched the ball down the field and Mosely caught his third touchdown of the night from Shumaker to provide the knockout blow. Louisville’s defense finished it off with a turnover on downs and the Wildcats had a big win.
It wasn’t a surprise to Shorter that they got the job done. That’s what his team is capable of in his eyes.
“It’s what I’ve been expecting. I told them from the beginning that if they just trust the process, it works,” Shorter said. “It’s proven that it’s worked so all they’ve got to do is trust and keep the faith. We have a good football team and there’s a lot of great athletes here.”
Along with Mosely’s big game on Friday was David Haynes who had four catches for 76 yards in the passing game.
