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Lions’ backs bowl down Flucos

Photo: Bob Kenward

UVA Primary and Specialty Care Zion Crossroads

 

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In just five days, Louisa County could go from being 1-3 to suddenly playing .500 football and contending for a top spot in the Jefferson District standings. Of course, one step at a time, right? Facing Fluvanna County on the road, the Lions had to pick up the win to set up an ever important home game with Powhatan on Friday.

 

With their offensive and defensive line simply dominating from the first snap up until the last, the Lions got the first part of the job done on Monday as they cruised to a 62-6 win over the Flucos.

 

“When you haven’t been able to practice for four days you never know what to expect and I know everybody is in the same boat, and we’ll see come Friday if we’re ready to make the turn — tonight though, I thought everyone played hard and everyone got the opportunity to play,” said Louisa coach Mark Fischer. “All-in-all it was a good night. We got a couple of guys who got dinged here and there and we were able to make sure their injuries didn’t get worse (by bringing in substitutions). We wanted to see a couple of other different kids run the ball just to see what we have.”

 

Any way you chop it up, the Lions’ rushing attack was on point. Four different Louisa backs ran past the century mark and as a team, they ran for 545 yards. Before anyone in the stands blinked, the Lions were up 13-0. On the game’s opening drive Louisa went to it’s featured back Job Whalen who did the bulk of the heavy lifting on a 7-play 70-yard drive that was capped by his first rushing touchdown of the the night, a 9-yarder. With the Lions recovering the ensuing onside kick, the offense again methodically worked its way into the redzone with quarterback Jordan Cherry setting up Whalen’s second score of the night, this time from three yards out.

 

After that, it become a carousel of rushers for Louisa. Djon Shelton made it 21-0 after he broke off a slippery 39-yard run where he ran through on arm tackle after another.

 

Fluvanna had two bright spots on the evening. The first came early in the first quarter on special teams after Louisa muffed a punt just outside of its own redzone and Zachary Hartzog came up with the fumble recovery. While the Flucos were unable to turn that opportunity into points, early in the second quarter the offense finally clicked for a full drive. With Mark Grooms running and the Lions coming up with two costly penalities, the Fluvanna offense worked its way into the Louisa redzone for the second time on the night. This time the offense came through with quarterback Gavin Patrick hitting Alex Logan for a 23-yard touchdown on a post route to cut the lead to 21-6. Unfortunately for the Flucos, it was all Lions for the rest of the contest.

 

The Louisa defensive line had itself a night as they put contest pressure on Patrick, giving him just a second or two to make a read, and barely enough time to even come out of play-action plays looking to buy him more time to get an open man downfield.

 

“That a was point coming into the week, getting the d-line to get the penetration and gap control that we need to let our linebackers run around,” Fischer said. “Sometimes when those guys do their job they get the prize themselves. They showed some improvement tonight, some good discipline and did what we asked of them.”

 

The line was all too happy with the results as they held Fluvanna to negative rushing yardage and only allowed Fluvanna’s offense to complete two passes for yardage more than a first down.

 

“We just listened to the coaches and went out and did our jobs,” said lineman Quinton Ragland. “Do what we do and we believe in everybody behind us. Everybody can do stuff (to help). So we just go at it.”

 

The only thing more impressive than the start Louisa got off to was that when the Lions sent Whalen and other starters to the bench, the product remained the same.

 

Raquan Jones ran in a 19-yard touchdown to make it 28-6 with 8:18 to play in the second. Then he broke off a 46-yard run and capped the drive with a 3-yard TD and it was 35-6. Late in the second, Malik Bell put together a rumbling 23-yard scoring run and the Lions were set up at 42-6, headed to the second half with a running clock in place.

 

Louisa scored three times in the second half. Shelton picked up his second score of the night on the Lions opening possession of the third quarter with a 5-yard rush. Bell barreled through for a 29-yard rushing touchdown — his second of the night too — to make it 55-6 with 8:58 to play. Finally, Cooper Yancy wrapped up the scoring with his 2-yard run late in the fourth.

 

On the night, Whalen had 16 carries for 134 yards and two TDs. Shelton added seven rushes for 125 yards and two TDs. Bell finished with 112 yards on his seven attempts and two TDs. Jones had eight carries for 107 yards and also a pair of TDs.

 

Louisa (2-3, 1-1 JD) host Powhatan on Friday while Fluvanna (0-5, 0-2) has a trip to Monticello, also on Friday.

 

“This is the measuring stick for us — what are we?” Fischer said. “We’ve got Powhatan and we’ve struggled with them in the past. So we’ve got a short time to get ready and that’ll show us what we’re made of. Are we ready for a team like them? Time will tell.”

 

Medical Associates of Louisa

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