Life’s been good when you feel as though there is room for improvement after a game in which the opposition crossed the 50-yardline just twice during a playoff game. As has been the case in a handful of games, Louisa County’s offense took a little while to warm up, but with the Lions’ defense offering no quarter to visiting James Wood, that wasn’t an issue.
“Defensively, I was tickled,” said Lions coach Mark Fischer. “We had maybe one or two alignment issues where they got us off guard but (defensive coordinator) John Meeks made the adjustments.”
Once the Lions got rolling in the second quarter by running the ball to the edge of the field, everything fell in place. By the fourth quarter, Louisa was just a missed extra point away from a running clock, and in the end, it was a late Colonels touchdown on the second team defense that kept the Jefferson District champs from posting a shutout for the second straight week. Nonetheless, a 34-7 win in the Region II Division 4 quarterfinals keeps Louisa’s season alive and well, and guarantees another home game.
“I’m pleased with the defensive output,” Fischer said. “But I’m also pleased with the second half offensive output. I’m not mad at the kids because I think (James Wood) was doing some things that I did not think they would do and they did a good job at that. They game-planned me better in that first half. In the second half we got together and talked and we re-established what our new gameplan was going to be and we came up with better schemes.”
While the Lions’ defense kept the Colonels pinned behind the 30-yard line for the entire first quarter, the offense wasn’t able to take advantage of the field position. However, early in the second, Louisa put together a long drive as quarterback Kire Worley and running backs Rayshawn Jackson and Anthony Hunter steered clear from the middle of the field and swept around to the edges with much more success. Two minutes into the second, the Lions capped the drive off with a 2-yard punch-in from Jackson.
After the break, the Lions came out strong to start the third quarter. On its opening drive of the half, Louisa made it a 14-0 game on another long drive that ended in a short Jackson run, this time a 4-yard score.
For the first time all night, Wood finally found Louisa territory on its ensuing possession, and behind a handful of lengthy runs from Mark Collie, the Colonels looked poised to put their first points on the board. However, those hopes ended shorty after Wood entered the redzone as Tony Green picked off Matt Copely at the 5-yard line.
Now with Worley doing the heavy lifting, and Hunter finding more and more room to run, the Louisa backfield dominated the first nine minutes of the fourth quarter. Hunter, who the Colonels locked in on for the first three quarters, capped the first drive of the fourth with a 1-yard run.
“We figured this was going to be a close game coming in,” Worley said. “We started off slow as usual, but in the second half we blew up.”
After Jackson came up with his second interception of the night on the next play from scrimmage, the Lions set up with a short field.
“I think they do (get confused) a little bit,” Jackson said when asked if the opposition loses track of him when on defense. “They see me starting out by the receiver and then I start walking over to the line to play linebacker. On the one (interception) the guy ran a drag and (Brandon Ornduff) did a good job of chipping him and I so I got in front of him and got the ball.”
When Louisa got to the Wood 2-yard line, Ornduff made the most of his first of two carries on the night, ramming home the short rushing score up the gut to make it 27-0. Four minutes later, Ornduff received his second carry of the night, this time a little closer to the endzone at the 1-yard line which ended in the same result to finish up the Lions’ scoring.
With the Lions’ second team defense in, James Wood put together its lone scoring drive with Cory Schrock wedging in a 3-yard touchdown run with 1:38 to play to stymie Louisa’s second shutout in as many games.
Defensively, Ornduff had a game high 15 tackles. Chris Colvin had a pair of sacks. On offense, Anthony Hunter had 160 yards on the ground. Jackson took 11 carries 65 yards. Worley churned out 79 yards rushing.
As the top seed in the region, Louisa will host its next game which will be against Broad Run on Friday at 7 p.m.
