Minerva Lions at Louisville Leopards 1983 Football Highlights
Louisville 21, Minerva Lions 0
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The Louisville Leopards opened the 1983 season by shutting out their rival the Minerva Lions 21-0 at Louisville Stadium on September 2, 1983. The game marked the end of a 60 year old rivalry series with Louisville leading the series 39-9-11 dating back to 1924.
The Leopards dominated their long time arch-rivals out of the gate. The Louisville defense held Minerva to no first downs in the opening half in out-gaining them 101-36 in total yards.
The Lions opening drive abruptly ended when Paul Farrah recovered a fumble for the Leopards at the Minerva 36. Eight plays later, Runningback Shannon Hostetler found pay dirt from a yard out to give LHS an early 7-0 advantage with 7:02 left in the first quarter.
Good fortune continued for Louisville as Minerva’s Craig Catlett muffed the ensuing kickoff and Mike Abraham recovered for the Leopards at the Lions 30. However, Louisville squandered the opportunity with a fumble of their own that was recovered by Minerva’s Ted Stazak at the MHS 9 yard line.
Despite the fumble, the Leopards defense dominated and kept the Lions buried deep in their own territory for all of the first half. Louisville was able to reach the Minerva 14 on a drive of their own, but a 32 yard field goal fell short keeping the score 7-0.
The Leopards put together a mammoth 15 play, 65 yard scoring drive to open the second half chewing off 7:46 of game time. The combination of Quarterback Brian Mathie and Wide Receiver Todd Lautzenheiser keyed the march. Mathie was 5 of 6 on the drive hitting Lautzenheiser on 17 yard reception that setup the pair’s 4 yard touchdown completion with 4:14 left in the third quarter. 14-0 Louisville.
The Mathie to Lautzenheiser duo connected 4 times for 68 yards in the game and went to work again early on in the fourth quarter. Mathie found Lautzenheiser for completions of 34 and 13 before Mark Greco ran in a 9 yard touchdown with 8:55 left to play making it 21-0. Mathie would finish 10 of 18 for 104 yards through the air.
The Leopards running game amassed 231 yards on 45 attempts with Greco finishing as Louisville’s leading rusher with 7 carries for 60 yards. Hostetler carried the majority of the load with 14 carries for 55 yards and Mathie scrambled 9 times for 28 yards.
The Leopards defense didn’t allow the Lions to penetrate Louisville territory until late in the third quarter. Minerva drove to the Leopards 33 yard line before turning the ball over on downs on the final play of the period.
The Lions best opportunity of the night came after Bill Eyer returned a kickoff to the Minerva 47. The Lions would drive 52 yards over the course of the next 10 plays to the Louisville 1 yard line. Quarterback Steve Brown was just 2 of 12 for 24 yards on the night might managed to hit Eyer for 14 yards on a fourth down play to give Minerva a 1st-and-Goal from a yard out. The Leopards slammed the door though as the next 3 Lions plays netted negative 3 yards.
Neither team would score the rest of the way, but the final minutes were anything but uneventful. Minerva’s Tyler Zeedrich picked off Louisville’s backup Quarterback Chris Minor in LHS territory. But Minor avenged his own interception with a pick of his own two plays later to seal the Leopard shutout.
The two rivals would not meet again until the 1988 season.
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Note: These highlights obviously have tracking issues. If you have a version of this game in better quality, we’d love to convert your version to digital for free and use it to recreate this highlight video. If you have this game or other Leopards past game film you’d like us to convert, please contact Jared at louisvilleleopards.org@gmail.com
Scoring Summary
LEOPARDS 21, LIONS 0
Team 1-2-3-4–TOTAL
Minerva 0-0-0-0–00
Louisville 7-0-7-7–21
1st Quarter
LOUISVILLE – Shannon Hostetler 1 Yard Run (Brad Lingenhoel Kick) | LHS 7, MHS 0, 7:02
8 Plays, 36 Yards
2nd Quarter
NO SCORING
3rd Quarter
LOUISVILLE – Todd Lautzenheiser 4 Yard Pass from Brian Mathie (Brad Lingenhoel Kick) | LHS 14, MHS 0, 4:14
15 Plays, 65 Yards
4th Quarter
LOUISVILLE – Mark Greco 9 Yard Run (Brad Lingenhoel Kick) | LHS 21, MHS 0, 8:55
Records: Louisville 1-0, Minerva 0-1
All-Time Series: Louisville 39-9-11
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Team Stats
First Downs
Louisville: 19
Minerva: 6
Total Offense
Louisville: 64 plays, 335 yards
Minerva: 39 plays, 116 yards
Rushing
Louisville: 45 carries for 231 yards, 2 touchdowns
Minerva: 27 carries for 91 yards
Passing
Louisville: 10 of 19 for 104 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 interception
Minerva: 2 of 12 for 25 yards, 1 interception
Punts-Average
Louisville: 2-21.0
Minerva: 3-34.0
Penalties/Yards
Louisville: 6 for 60 yards
Minerva: 6 for 59 yards
Fumbles-Lost
Louisville: 3-1
Minerva: 3-2
Individual Stats
Rushing
Louisville:
Mark Greco 7 carries, 60 yards, touchdown
Shannon Hostetler 14 carries, 55 yards, touchdown
Brian Mathie 9 carries, 28 yards
Minerva:
Shaun Seibel 10 carries, 54 yards
Passing
Louisville:
Brian Mathie 10 of 18 for 104 yards, touchdown
Chris Minor 0 of 1 for 0 yards, interception
Minerva:
Steve Brown 2 of 12 for 25 yards, 1 interception
Receiving
Louisville:
Todd Lautzenheiser 4 catches for 68 yards, touchdown
Paul Farrah 5 catches for 27 yards
Minerva:
Bill Eyer 2 catches for 25 yards
Defense
Louisville:
Paul Farrah – Fumble Recovery
Mike Abraham – Fumble Recovery
Chris Minor – Interception
Minerva:
Ted Stazak – Fumble Recovery
Tyler Zeedrich – Interception