Louisville's Justin Schram (12), Dustin Fickler (7) and Bill Shumaker
(25) combine to bring down a Thunderbird ball carrier during the Lions'
42-0 victory.
Photo
compliments of Krambeck Photography.
Click to see more photos.....
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LHS
Offensvie Line Justin Schram, Jeff Vlasnik, Sean Ronnfeldt, D. J. Mann, Jesse Abbott. Blake Higginbotham, Adam Sparks made blocks resulting in huge holes for the Lion running backs. |
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LHS
Defense First shutout in 18 games was a team effort. 22 Lions were credited with a defensive statistic. |
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Lions
Shutout T-Birds, Win 42-0
(9-14-07)
The
Louisville Lions earned their first victory of the season with a 42-0
trouncing of the Johnson County Central Thunderbirds.
Playing
in their first home football contest since the consolidation of Tecumseh
and Nemaha Valley to form Johnson County Central, the T-Birds, outscored
97-0 during their 0-2 start, offered little resistance to a determined
Louisville squad.
Just 2:28 into the game, the Louisville Lions had enough points to win
the football game against J. C. Central when Dustin Fickler culminated
a 5 play, 80 yard drive by tiptoeing down the east sideline, scoring from
19 yards out.
But the Lions wouldn’t be satisfied with just a 7-0 margin as Louisville
scored 28 second quarter points to turn the game into a rout by half-time.
Louisville scored on another 80 yard drive, consisting of 8 rushing plays
and ending with senior fullback Nico Lemmers bursting off tackle from
3 yards out as the LHS interior line of Blake Higginbotham, Sean Ronnfeldt,
Justin Schram, Jeff Vlasnik and D. J. Mann dominated the line of scrimmage.
“Our offensive and defensive line did a great job up front and our
backs ran hard and our wide outs made some keys blocks,” said Louisville
head football coach, Wally Johnson.
The next two Lion scores were results of short field touchdowns after
the Louisville defense stopped J. C. Central, forcing the T-Birds to punt.
LHS moved the ball 55 yards, the final 30 coming on a Tyler Johnson-to-Dustin
Fickler pass while the following TD was a one-play, 32 yard, tackle-breaking
sprint by Nico Lemmers.
Reserve running back Dallas Lemmers scored the final points of the first
half from the 2 yard line, tallying his first varsity touchdown with 2:13
left in the half to make the score 35-0 before the break.
After intermission, Nico Lemmers’ scored his third TD of the night
from 5 yards out on Louisville’s first possession of the second-half.
Coach Johnson, who substituted liberally throughout the night, then turned
the game over to the offensive and defensive reserves.
“We got a lot of kids a lot of experience and got our first stringers
some much needed rest,” said Johnson.
The decisive victory was a great win as the Lions head into district competition.
How dominant was the Louisville effort? LHS did not punt until midway
through the final quarter when the Lion’s second-team offense failed
to convert on third-and-long.
The Louisville defense, led by Fickler’s 13 tackles, registered
their first shutout in 18 games going back to the 25-0 blanking of Weeping
Water in 2005. Jesse Abbott and Ronnfeldt added 12 tackles apiece.
The Lions will now turn their attention to the Palmyra Panthers, their
September 21 opponent.
“We
now need to prepare for district play and take this momentum we earned
tonight,” said Johnson, “Palmyra has always been a dogfight
and we expect nothing less, but we are eager to defend our home turf and
continue to improve.” Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00.
The
Panthers come to Louisville with a 3-1 record, having beaten Wilber-Clatonia,
Southern and Tri-County before losing to East Butler, 16-14, Friday night.