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Lions stay perfect, run past the Patriots in the first half

Photo: Ryan Yemen

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Louisa coach Mark Fischer had all kinds of thoughts and plans on how to prepare defensively for Albemarle’s elusive quarterback J’Quan Anderson and his compliment of playmakers. It came to a boiling point mid-week.

 

“I lost so much sleep over him all week, because on film, nobody has contained (Anderson),” Fischer said. “I was trying to figure out what to do with our ends and it got to a point where I’d taken all our aggression away and we were just trying to close a net on him. Watching practice, we were getting too soft, too scared. So we made adjustments on some angles and put different coverages in late in the week and I think they did a great job of executing.”

 

Albemarle knocked on the door early with it’s opening drive and the Louisa defense answered the call with a stop on fourth and goal. That was the start of a huge run by the Lions, with three big mistakes from the Patriots helping fuel thr 28-0 explosion and ultimately a 41-13 win.

 

“We came out strong, trying to play physical because we came up short last year and had a little fire in our system,” said Louisa quarterback Malik Bell. “We came out hot, defense was strong and the offense was strong. We had a great first half.”

 

Stephen Yoder started the game by hushing the Louisa crowd with a kickoff return that put Albemarle just outside the redzone. Anderson and Jamal Thompson made it first and goal for the Patriots, but on fourth and four, the Lions’ defense came up with a stop. What ensued was classic Louisa football as Bell and running backs Job Whalen and Raquan Jones churned up short yardage and marched 96 yards to make it 6-0 with Bell taking it in on a 1-yard rush.

 

“The fact that the kids bolted the hatches and showed resiliency there, that’s something we’ve been pounding into them, that we wanted to make this a defensive game,” Fischer said. “We wanted to get some swag on defense and we did some things well, created turnovers and I think we can build on this.”

 

On the next Albemarle possession, Louisa forced a 3-and-out deep in Patriots territory and a botched punt gave the home team the ball with just 17-yards out of going up two possessions. The Lions jumped on the opportunity this time with Jones taking in a 3-yard run and an ensuing two-point conversion to make it 14-0.

 

When the Patriots fumbled a punt two drives later the same momentum that Louisa thrived  behind last week against King George was back at work. Job Whalen capped a short drive with the first of two rushing TDs for him, and another two point conversion, the score was quickly 22-0 early in the third. After a lengthy drive finished off by another short Bell run, it was 28-0 with just under seven minutes until the break.

 

Albemarle was able to get on the board late in the second with Anderson leading the way. The junior quarterback put together a shifty 19-yard scamper to make it 28-7 going into the break.

 

“When you play teams like this that run on time of possession, have a unique offense, it’s tough,” said Albemarle coach Brandon Isaiah. “I talked about it with the coaches and the guys — we came out aggressive on that first drive and just didn’t make that one play. They go and drive and get out in front. You can’t let that happen. Then it snowballed. After that, we came out fighting but it wasn’t enough. When you play good teams and don’t execute, you don’t win.”

 

The Lions nearly scored to end the second, but time worked against them. However, when they got the ball to start the third, they wasted little time and Whalen struck on a 24-yard run to give his team a 34-8 advantage. The rest of the game was pretty even with a back-and-forth exchange of turnovers on downs. Albemarle got a fourth-and-four conversion at the goalline to cut it 34-13 on an Anderson pass to Lorenz Brown but then Louisa answered with Zack Little capping a drive with a 7-yard TD run to make it a 28-point game again and wrap up the scoring.

 

“This group, we’ve never been 4-0 so to come out and do that, it just feels great,” Bell said.

 

For Louisa, Bell finished with 16 touches for 132 yards and two touchdowns while Whalen had 138 yards  and two touchdowns on his 23 carries. Thurston had a big game on defense with seven tackles, one for a loss and another for a sack.

 

“Up front we just had to fill the gaps, stop the ball,” Thurston said. “Our ends were great on contain and then the tackles, we were there for backup.”

 

William Wilkins had six tackles and a TFL. Jordan Cherry had an interception for the second straight week and a tackle for a loss. And for this Louisa defense, holding down a diverse Albemarle offense was something to hang its hat on.

 

“They are good, give credit to them, absolutely,” Cherry said. “We worked a lot on passing off with our zones and coverages this week so I feel like we prepared for them pretty well.”

 

For Albemarle, Anderson rushed for 65 yards on 16 attempts and was 7-for-19 passing with 80 yards. Brown had 47 yards on four catches.

 

The Patriots fall to 2-2 and will play Orange next week in their first home game since August 26th. The Lions improve to 4-0 and will host their fourth straight home game with Fluvanna County coming to the jungle next week.

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