Louisville Wins Shootout With West Branch 38-30 – Freshman Football
Louisville 38, West Branch 30
The Louisville Leopards Freshman Football Team won a back-and-forth affair with the visiting West Branch Warriors 38-30 Thursday Evening at Louisville Leopards Stadium. With the win, Louisville improves to 6-1-1 overall and 4-0 against NBC foes.
Runningback Daniel Kennedy ran for three touchdowns and caught the game-winning score in the fourth quarter to lead the Leopards. Kennedy reached paydirt from 5, 1, and 5 yards away as Louisville found themselves in a 22-22 tie with the Warriors at the end of the third quarter.
Quarterback Tyler Jackson completed a pair of fourth quarter touchdown passes to lift the Leopards to victory. He first hit Andy Larson for a 39 yard touchdown strike with 6:43 remaining in the contest. After West Branch tied the game at 30-30, Jackson hit Kennedy on a short pass in traffic. Kennedy snapped out of the claws of two Warriors defenders and sped by another down the right sideline. With nothing but turf in his path, Jackson sped by one last diving West Branch tackler and scored the go-ahead 56 yard touchdown with 2:07 remaining in the game. On the next play, Jackson rifled a pass to the reliable hands of Jake House for their second two-point conversion connection of the period to up their advantage to 38-30.
The Warriors offense marched across midfield, but the Leopard defense put an end to the threat by forcing a takeaway. Brady Vanover slammed into the West Branch Quarterback as he dropped back to throw jarring the ball free. The ball rolled around on the carpet for a second before Tony Brahler corralled it for Louisville on their own 34 yard line.
Brahler would finish with 3 of the Leopards 6 sacks on defense. Austin Stauffer also had 2 sacks and J.D. Tebaldi stormed in for a sack on the Warriors final possession for the final nail in the coffin.
Louisville recorded 4 takeaways on defense as well. Nate Hubbard intercepted two passes for the Leopards on defense. Brady Vanover also had a fumble recovery in addition to his forced fumble that Brahler recovered.
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The Warriors also recorded a pair of interceptions on defense. Brock Hillyer and Alek Wilson each recorded the picks. Kenny Marra also had 1.5 sacks, James Fitzsimmons had a sack, and Blake Schmidt had a half sack for the West Branch defense.
The Wilson and Hillyer duo produced 2 touchdowns on offense for the Warriors as well. Hillyer flipped a 6 yard touchdown pass to Wilson to cut the lead the 16-14 in the second quarter. Then Hillyer hit Wilson for a 24 yard touchdown pass to setup the game-tying conversion attempt in the fourth quarter. Hillyer found Marra for the two-point conversion to knot the contest at 30-30 with 3:24 remaining. Hillyer also had a separate conversion run earlier for West Branch.
Runningback David McKeivier ran wild for the Warriors offense as well. He scored on long touchdown runs of 60 and 64 yards to go along with a conversion run.
UP NEXT: The Leopards will next travel to Salem to take on the Quakers on Thursday, October 19 at 5:00 PM.
Scoring Summary
LEOPARDS 38, WARRIORS 30
Team 1-2-3-4–TOTAL
West Branch 6-8-8-8–30
Louisville 8-8-6-16–38
1st Quarter
Louisville – Daniel Kennedy 5 Yard Run (Brady Vanover Run) | LHS 8, WBHS 0, 6:43
West Branch – David McKeivier 60 Yard Run (Pass Failed) | LHS 8, WBHS 6, 5:44
2nd Quarter
Louisville – Daniel Kennedy 1 Yard Run (Andy Larson Pass from Tyler Jackson) | LHS 16, WBHS 6, 7:24
West Branch – Alek Wilson 6 Yard Pass from Brock Hillyer (Brock Hillyer Conversion Run) | LHS 16, WBHS 14, 3:52
3rd Quarter
West Branch – David McKeivier 64 Yard Run (David McKeivier Run) | LHS 16, WBHS 22
Louisville – Daniel Kennedy 5 Yard Run (Pass Failed) | LHS 22, WBHS 22
4th Quarter
Louisville – Andy Larson 39 Yard Pass from Tyler Jackson (Jake House Pass from Tyler Jackson) | LHS 30, WBHS 22
West Branch – Alek Wilson 24 Yard Pass from Brock Hillyer (Kenny Marra Pass from Brock Hillyer) | LHS 30, WBHS 30
Louisville – Daniel Kennedy 56 Yard Pass from Tyler Jackson (Jake House Pass from Tyler Jackson) | LHS 38, WBHS 30
Records: Louisville 6-1-1, 4-0
