Louisville Leopards at Hoover Vikings 2012 Football Highlights

By Leopard Nation · Published August 31, 2012 · Updated July 27, 2019

North Canton Hoover 41, Louisville 14

Quarterback Dom Iero was involved in three Vikings touchdowns and Xavier Hogan had a touchdown run & pick six to lead the Hoover Vikings past Louisville 41-14 Friday Night at North Canton Memorial Stadium. Joey Duckworth threw for 169 yards and ran for 45 more to lead the 1-1 Leopards.

Both Louisville and North Canton failed to score on their opening two possessions. North Canton’s drive was stopped by a penalty and then a sack by Louisville linebacker Charles Beamer. The Leopards drive stalled at the Hoover 21 when a 4th-and-1 pass from Duckworth to Trent Ohman went for no gain. Despite the turn over on downs, Ohman led all Louisville receivers on the evening catching 8 passes for 44 yards.

On the next Vikings drive, linebacker Gary Anile picked off Iero’s pass to setup the Leopards on their own 26. Louisville did nothing with the ball and a shanked punt gave Hoover great field position at the Louisville 45 yard line. On the drive, the Vikings endured a sack by Leopard defensive lineman Cory Neff and a dropped pass that could have easily gone for a score. A 13 yard run by runningback Sam Woods put the Vikings 5 yards away from the endzone before Iero found the goal line 2 plays later.

Just before the first quarter ended, Hoover defensive back Xavier Hogan returned an interception 50 yards for a score. It was the Vikings second touchdown in 1:06 giving them a stunning 14-0 lead.

It did not get any more pleasant for Louisville as they opened the second quarter with a three-and-out. Runningback Alex Welsh scampered 29 yards during a 10 play 68 yard Hoover drive that ate up 5:01. Woods pounded in the score to end the drive and then helped end the next Louisville drive with a sack on 3rd-and-10. Following that, North Canton retained possession at the 40 and went right for the heart. After several fakes in the backfield, Iero aired the dagger all the way to the endzone where it found the hands of Austin Feinberg. 28-0 North Canton.

Next, the Leopards broke the shutout with a 9 play, 71 yard drive that ended with a Trey Hayford 1 yard touchdown run with 43 seconds left in the half. On the drive, Duckworth completed two passes each to Ohman and Jeremy McQuilkin before putting his head down and dashing 14 yards to the 3 yard line. Two Hayford runs late got the Leopards on the board, but they still trailed 28-7 at the half.

Louisville turned the ball over on downs in their own territory to start the second half when a fake punt came up just short of the first down marker. Then Louisville survived a major scoring threat when Anile sacked Iero on a 4th-and-Goal from the Leopard 1. Louisville did enough to get out of the shadow of their own goal posts, but a blocked punt by Hoover setup the Vikings just 27 yards away from another score.

Kyle White stopped Hoover from scoring on the first play of the drive by deflecting a pass near the far right side of the goal line. But the Vikings would later convert a 4th-and-7 from Iero to Feinberg before scoring with the same combination from 7 yards out. The two would hook up 6 times for 85 yards for the night.

In deja vu format, Hogan returned another interception to the house just before the third quarter expired. However, a flag brought back the return and delayed the Vikings score until the first play of the fourth quarter. On that play, Hogan broke free down the left sideline for a 39 yard touchdown to put Hoover up 41-7.

The Leopards retaliated with a confidence building 9 play, 69 yard drive. Andy Minster and Ohman caught passes and Duckworth slashed and dashed for more yardage. The drive stalled at the 28 yard line when the Leopards faced a 4th-and-1. Out of a timeout, Duckworth floated a beauty to Alex Hollifield who hung onto the catch as he was tackled into the endzone.

Louisville would not see the ball again after that as North Canton would milk away the final 9:07 on a drive that featured two fourth down conversions and some nasty running. The Vikings were 4-for-5 on fourth downs for the evening and finished with 226 yards rushing. Welsh had a game high 19 carries for 90 yards to lead the Vikings ground and pound attack. The 50-7 Leopards victory from a year ago was replaced with their worse loss to Hoover since a 38-7 defeat at home in 2003. The 41-14 Vikings win is their biggest over the Leopards at Memorial Stadium since a 40-6 win in 1988. The Leopards still lead the all-time series 53-32-5

Louisville will ready for Ravenna squad that opened the season with a 29-23 overtime win against Tallmadge, but fell to Aurora Friday night 37-21.

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UP NEXT: The Leopards will next take on the Ravenna Ravens in the home opener on Friday, September 7 at 7:00 PM. JV will host Hoover on Saturday, September 1 at 10:00 AM.