By Liz Keller/Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
MINERAL — The Louisa County defense proved to be a big pain for Courtland on Friday night. Elijah Payne, in fact.
The senior defensive back recorded three interceptions — including one for a touchdown — as the Lions prevailed for a non-district win over the Cougars.
The Lions also got a boost from their ground game as they hung on for the 35-21 victory, their second straight over a Battlefield District team.
“That’s as wild a game as I’ve been in in a long time,” Louisa coach Mark Fischer said. “That was one of those weird games — I’ll have to watch film to wrap my brain around it. What we did right, what we did wrong, I don’t know.”
One thing the Lions did right was run the football. Louisa amassed 259 yards on the ground en route to its third win of the season.
Louisa took a 21-14 lead into the fourth quarter thanks to first-half touchdowns by Anthony Hunter (4-yard run) and Kire’ Worley (3-yard run) and an electrifying 38-yard interception return from Payne.
“The coaches were telling me all week, ‘watch for that outside route’ because they like to throw it short all the time,” Payne said. “When I saw [Courtland quarterback Nick Zaluzney] running short and our defense dropped back and I knew he was going to throw it quick and the first opening I saw, he looked and threw it and I was like, ‘that’s mine.'”
In the fourth, with the visitors driving, the Lions came up with a critical stop on fourth down as Payne picked off his third pass of the night and ran it back to the Cougars 24-yard line. It took just four plays for Louisa to score after that as Hunter found the end zone from four yards out.
But Courtland didn’t go quietly. The Cougars (0-3) quickly climbed back into it, using a four-play drive of their own to cut the lead to 28-21 with 4:28 to play. Courtland converted on third down as Nick Zaluzney connected with E.J. Green (140 yards receiving) on a 55-yard TD strike. Zaluzney was effective all night, passing for 250 yards and three touchdowns, but Louisa’s secondary intercepted him four times.
“We had big holes to fill, we had a lot of guys trying to take over for [Andre] Mealy,” Fischer said. “And we knew we were going to give up some yardage, we just wanted to respond and limit the damage as much as we could.”
Using their potent run game, the Lions sealed the win on their next drive. Hunter broke away for a 31-yard touchdown run, his third of the game, with 2:17 remaining. The 5-10, 175-pound senior paved the way with a game-high 140 yards on 16 carries. Rayshawn Jackson added 70 yards on 12 carries, while Worley finished with 40 yards rushing.
Fischer was pleased with the way his team overcame sloppy play (five fumbles) and the Cougars efficient passing attack.
“These guys showed resiliency. If you’ve watched us over the years, there’s been times that something happened and I didn’t know if we were going to respond,” Fischer said. “This group responds. They’re bound and determined to truck that thing down the field.”
Louisa plays host to William Monroe in its Jefferson District opener next Friday.
