Even though the defense was playing lights out and his team was ahead on the scoreboard, Louisa County quarterback Landon Wilson spent most of Friday’s game at Western looking to atone for early mistakes.
Wilson and the offense scored on their first drive of the contest, but two turnovers and over 100 yards in penalties kept Louisa’s advantage at 7-0 heading into the fourth quarter.
After watching his defensive counterparts come up with yet another stop to preserve the shutout, Wilson decided that he was ready to create some distance between the Lions and Western Albemarle.
With under 9:30 to play in a tight contest, Wilson raced 71 yards on third down for a touchdown that was a long time coming for the Louisa offense.
The Lions reeled off 20 points in the fourth quarter and rode their stingy defense to a 27-0 shutout of the Warriors on homecoming night in Crozet.
The triumph stretched Louisa’s Jefferson District winning streak to 31 games, dating back to the 2017 season.
Twenty of Louisa’s 27 points took place in the final 9:21 of the game, as the offense failed to capitalize off of several opportunities in the first three quarters. But once Wilson broke through on that big run on third-down-and-seven, there was no looking back.
“I knew in the first half, I had an interception and a fumble too, I knew I had to make up for it,” said Wilson of his big touchdown run. “I hit the hole, wide open field, and I just took off. I was going run out of bounds, but I just cut back. I saw the endzone in my eyes and I had to go for it, and then Austin Talley and Jaylen Beach just carried me in.”
Wilson finished the game with 141 yards and two touchdowns, highlighted, of course, by the 71-yard scamper in the fourth quarter.
The junior made a few nice cuts downfield to put the Western defense on skates on the big play, but he got the initial push thanks to a great block from two-way lineman Eli Brooks.
Brooks was seemingly everywhere on both offense and defense for Louisa in Friday’s win. The six-foot-one, 230-pound Brooks made a bevy of plays on defense, including a huge pass breakup to halt a promising Western drive in the first half, and a tackle for-a-loss on fourth down on the Warriors’ second-to-last possession of the game.
“[Eli] has one of the highest motors I have ever seen. I’ve played with him since I was in third or fourth grade,” Wilson said. “He opened that thing wide open on my run.”
With former Louisa defensive standout and current Penn State linebacker Brandon Smith in attendance for Friday’s game, Brooks and the Louisa defense limited Western to just 60 yards of total offense. That effort got an early spark for Maleke Huntington breaking on a ball and picking it off for his first career interception.
The Warriors’ scoring opportunities were few and far between despite good starting field position on a number of occasions. Western threatened to tie the game on the opening series of the second quarter. Following an interception at midfield by Joshua Williams, the Warriors used a nifty 11-yard reception by Aidan Carver-Woodson and several hard-earned runs from Kaden Morrow to march the ball all the way down to the 13-yard line.
The Warriors then ran three plays inside the 10-yard line, but were turned away on fourth down.
Following yet another stop from the Western defense, the Warriors started their final drive of the third quarter at the 35 yardline, thanks to a 15-yard punt return from Joe Burch. But Western gained just 12 yards on the possession, and Emery Pulich’s 43-yard field goal sailed wide-left.
The shutout marked the first time that Western Albemarle was held scoreless since the Warriors fell 27-0 to Fluvanna on September 24, 2010.
“Tonight was going to be about two things — Physicality and doing your assignment and I thought we really did that tonight,” Louisa coach Will Patrick said. “Our whole D-line, man, Elijah Brooks is a straight solider, playing both ways. I think he’s the best O-lineman/D-lineman going both ways in this district. Qwenton Spellman was playing his butt off, and Aiden Riley too. Our whole D-line, they really get after it.”
There was plenty of love to go around when the Louisa County offense finally woke up in the fourth quarter. Jordan Smith added to his already-impressive total, finishing the game with 129 yards off of 10 carries.
Austin Talley and Troy Fischer each scored touchdown runs from seven and 17 yards out respectively.
Western allowed a four-play, 68-yard scoring drive on Louisa’s first series, but the Warriors kept LCHS in check from that point, up until the final quarter.
WAHS won the turnover battle and there were plenty defensive standouts for the home side, despite the loss.
Defensive linemen Ross Basset and Grant Karczewski came up with a huge tackle-for-a-loss on Wilson on third down to put an end to a productive Louisa drive in the closing minutes of the first half.
The Lions again marched into Western territory in the third quarter, before Carson Tujague, who returned from an injury after missing the AHS game, came up with a critical stop on 3rd and short to force a Louisa punt. Tujague’s big play led to Burch’s big punt return and Western’s best starting field position of the evening.
Burch took over as Western’s quarterback in the final half after Nathan Simon went down with a lower body injury in the closing seconds of the second quarter.
The Warriors will look to get back to their winning ways at Fluvanna next Friday, while Louisa will return to action at Albemarle on October 29.
