Following an emotional win over the Starkville Yellow Jackets, Louisville had the tough task of getting right back to work against one of its biggest rivals.
A season after surviving a 7-6 ball game against the Tigers, Louisville was not as lucky in 2024. The Tigers controlled the ball game and made big plays down the stretch to pull away and end a 30-game winning streak for the Wildcats in a 28-13 loss.
It would have been simple for coach Tyrone Shorter to use a rainy and windy evening at R.E. Hinze Field as the culprit. Instead, the veteran coach said his team just got flat out beat.
“Playing Noxubee County, Starkville and West Point, you can throw out the records because our kids know each other and they can all play,” Shorter said. “I’m not going to blame the weather, our kids just didn’t play good. I felt like we got outplayed and outcoached. They had a better scheme than we did, and they came to play.”
It was the first time since Shorter’s opening game as the Louisville head coach in 2019 that the Tigers were able to win the Toothpick Bowl. The game earned its name based off of legendary head coach M.C. Miller who coached at both Noxubee and Louisville and the coach had a chance to present the trophy to the Tigers postgame.
History is strong withing the two teams and Shorter has followed in the same footsteps as his former boss Miller in that he also coached at Noxubee prior to arriving to Louisville. He also had a chance to see a glimpse of what Noxubee QB Kamario Taylor could be all the way back when he was in sixth grade.
On Friday night, Taylor showed Shorter just how much he had grown as a QB as he took the ball game over. The Mississippi State commitment and four-star signal caller was 11-of-28 passing for 160 yards and two touchdowns and added another 23 carries for 192 yards and two more scores.
“I’ve been knowing that kid and that family for a long time. Before I left, he was one of my mangers and I knew he was going to be a player,” Shorter said. “The kid made some plays. He’s a four-star athlete for a reason. He was a difference maker, and he was a smart kid. We tried to take away the passing game and he ran the ball on us then we put players in the box, and he passed it on us. We didn’t have an answer for him.”
It was a 7-7 ball game at halftime after the Tigers were able to get into the end zone with 3:06 left on a Taylor run and the Wildcats answered late with a touchdown pass from Xavier Hunt to Kameron Triplett.
Taylor came back after halftime and threw a 25-yard pass and followed that up with a touchdown run on the next drive pushing that lead all the way to 21-7 with 7 minutes left in the third. Zaiden Jernigan was able to answer on the following possession with a 3-yard run to make it 21-13, but that was as close as the Wildcats would get.
Taylor would put the game away with under 8 minutes left when he threw an 11-yard pass to his younger brother Jaiden and the Wildcats went down for the first time since September of 2022.
Hunt finished just 5-of-13 passing for 61 yards, one touchdown and one interception as getting big plays through the air in the rain was a challenge. The quarterback did have 37 yards rushing.
LHS finished with 44 carries for 206 yards rushing led by Xzarion Haynes’ 13 carries and 73 yards. Corxavier Coleman and Travon McDonald each had nine tackles, but the Wildcat defense only managed one tackle for loss in the game and it came from McDonald.
LHS (4-1) doesn’t have time to dwell on the loss as the Wildcats are now in Class 4A, Region 4 play. One of the biggest contenders for their district title crown will be a Houston Hilltopper team that enters 4-1 and also coming off of their first loss of the season.
With the distractions of Homecoming coupled with the loss from last Friday night, Shorter said there’s a lot to be concerned about.
“The challenge is to make sure that we stay focused. It’s my job to make sure the kids stay focused this week. At the end of the night, people are coming back for Homecoming and the only thing they’re going to remember is the game,” Shorter said.
“These guys haven’t lost a game in a long time. We’ve got to face some adversity now and it’s my job to get them past it. Now, everything counts with division. Our goal is still to win the state championship and we’ll continue to fight for that.”
