Louisville Leopards at Marlington Dukes 2002 Football Highlights

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Louisville 35, Marlington 3

October 18, 2002 was a bittersweet night for the Louisville Leopards Football team. They mauled the host Marlington Dukes 35-3 to clinch a share of their fourth straight NBC Title, but in the process lost their star runningback to injury.

“We’ll see what type of team we are. We can sit around and cry about this or take this as a challenge,” Head Coach Paul Farrah said following the contest. “With the seniors we have, I think we’ll take the latter. We’ll buckle it up and see why this is a team game.”

Starting Runningback Curtis Elsass ran the ball 4 times for 47 yards and a touchdown before leaving the Beatty's Football Shirt 2015contest with an injury. Elsass broke free for a 21 yard touchdown run to open the scoring in the first quarter.

Backup Curt Moore also succumbed to injury forcing Wide Receiver Mike Batdorff to rotate at tailback with Junior Runningback Dan Kolp. Batdorff finished with 13 carries for 77 yards and Kolp ended his night with 8 carries for 32 yards and a third quarter touchdown run.

Despite the injuries at runningback, Louisville out-rushed Marlington 270-75 for the game. Quarterback Gary Whaley provided additional aide to the running game with with a pair of second half touchdown runs. He also connected with Nick Vernon for an 11 yard touchdown pass to help the Leopards go ahead 14-0 at the end of the first quarter. Whaley finished with 92 yards through the air for the evening.

Louisville’s defense dominated in their ninth straight win of the year. They held the Dukes to just 87 yards of offense and Marlington finished just 1 of 10 passing for 12 yards. The Leopards finished with 25 first downs for the game, while surrendering just 6 to the Dukes.

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Scoring Summary

Team 1-2-3-4–TOTAL

Louisville 14-0-14-7–35

Marlington 0-3-0-0–03

1st Quarter

Louisville – Curtis Elsass 21 Yard Run (Brian Potts Kick), 7-0

Louisville – Nick Vernon 11 Yard Pass from Gary Whaley (Brian Potts Kick), 14-0

2nd Quarter

Marlington –  Knepp 27 Yard Field Goal, 14-3

3rd Quarter 

Louisville – Gary Whaley 7 Yard Run (Brian Potts Kick), 21-3

Louisville – Dan Kolp 1 Yard Run (Brian Potts Kick), 28-3

4th Quarter

Louisville – Gary Whaley 6 Yard Run (Brian Potts Kick), 35-3

Stats

Rushing: Louisville 44-270, Marlington 34-75

Passing: Louisville 9-20-2-92, Marlington 1-10-0-12

First Downs: Louisville 25, Marlington 6

Fumbles-Lost: Louisville 2-0, Marlington 6-1

Records: Louisville 9-0, 6-0

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