Louisa County senior Kalup Shelton was relentlessly positive after the Lions’ 31-15 loss to King George Friday night, telling teammates the “sun will rise again tomorrow” while physically lifting some of them like lineman Lowell Johnson up. In the most frustrating moments with his high school career coming to a close, Shelton was finding a way to keep moving forward, much like he had with a couple of late runs including a 53-yard touchdown sprint that kept hope alive for the Lions in the waning minutes as they tried to scrap and claw back into the game.
“It’s special, we’ve been through everything together,” Shelton said as he sat on the turf, trying to soak in the last few minutes of his high school career. “I had to finish strong, it was my last game and I’m not going to leave empty handed. It’s been a great run.”
Shelton was emblematic of a group of seniors that went through so much just to play, to take the field and be the standard bearers for the community like Louisa County football does each and every year. That group fought through a delayed season and COVID protocols just to get a chance to play and then took full advantage, winning six-straight regular season games and a fourth-straight Jefferson District title.
“I’m just glad they got a chance to play, we lost a lot of kids after the 2019 season and then COVID hit and everyone had question marks everywhere,” said Louisa coach Will Patrick. “Like Kalup Shelton, I’m going to miss that kid so much, heck of a running back. 5-9, 185 and runs hard as heck.”
Friday night though, they ran into a King George team that remembered its loss to the Lions back in 2019, a senior-laden group that was fired up for another shot at the Lions. That energy was apparent from the start as Charles Mutter hit Chris Cox for a 69-yard touchdown catch and run on just the second play of the game.
“We’ve been slow in the first quarter this season and it’s great to beat a team (that beat us a year ago),” Mutter said. “The revenge tour is still on, that’s still our motto.”
King George kept the pedal down in the early going, building a 21-0 lead behind Mutter’s arm and an undersized but technically sound offensive line that at least in the early going gave Mutter a clean pocket to work with and opened up some holes on the ground. It was an impressive performance by the offensive line against a heralded Louisa defensive front.
“Their defensive line coach has prepared them and they are perfectly sound,” Mutter said. “Going against Eastern View, going against Chancellor, those were huge steps in the right direction for our line. To be able to go out there against that defensive line and hold their ground? It was wonderful.”
Mutter finished with 238 yards through the air on 13-for-23 passing, with 192 of that coming in the first half as King George looked to shorten the game and keep the clock running in the second half. He hit Cox three times for touchdowns as Cox rang up 138 of those yards. Mutter also scored once on the ground, sneaking in after speedster Javon Campbell caught a ball in the first quarter and seemed to race in from 29 yards out but was called out at the one.
While Louisa’s defense definitely picked things up over the final three quarters, the early struggles snowballed and when the offense had to go to the air, Louisa had too many dropped passes in key situations.
“We lost to a very good King George team, King George is really good,” Patrick said. “They’re senior-heavy, they made some adjustments. I’m happy that our boys played hard until the end.”
The Lions’ most important missed opportunity came late in the second quarter after quarterback Landon Wilson powered the ball in for a touchdown on a keeper around the left side and Chase Miller immediately picked off a pass to put the Lions in position to perhaps go into halftime trailing by just a single score. Instead, they were forced to punt after offsetting penalties erased a defensive pass interference drawn on a fake punt that would’ve kept the drive going.
There was also a missed chance before that late in the first quarter when the Lions drove to the doorstep of the redzone but then had a couple of dropped passes that could’ve ended in a score while down just 14-0.
After the half it was more of the same as the offense stalled until the closing minutes while King George did enough to finish off the game, with Mutter throwing his third touchdown to Cox with 10:23 to play to all but put the game out of reach. Louisa refused to go quietly, with Shelton ripping off the 53-yard touchdown, prompting the Lions to try an onsides kick that King George recovered. Louisa called timeouts and forced a turnover on downs, but the offense couldn’t race down field quickly enough and a pick in the endzone by King George was the final play of the game.
Shelton finished with 15 carries for 122 yards while Wilson had 12 carries for 63 yards. The Lions managed just 64 yards through the air and struggled to keep drives alive, going just 3-for-10 on third and 0-for-4 on fourth downs.
The Lions, who graduate key players like Shelton, A.J. Proffitt, Johnson and Logan McGhee, will turn their attention to fall now and returners like Wilson at quarterback, playmaker Jordan Smith (who King George seemed intent on neutralizing but managed an early blocked field goal on special teams) and Eli Cook and Qwenton Spellman in the trenches.
King George advances to the Region 4B championship game where they’ll face the winner of Monacan and Patrick Henry-Ashland.
