Louisville shuts out Caledonia

LOUISVILLE, Miss., - Louisville scored on its first play from scrimmage and Caledonia coughed up the football on its first play.

It was that kind of night as the Wildcats were dominant in a 42-0 shutout Friday night. Louisville jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter and never looked back.

"We wanted to jump on them quick so we could get a chance to let a lot of guys play," said Louisville head coach M.C. Miller. "All of the games have been pretty tight and we haven't played a lot of guys like we should've. We were hoping we could do it but every time we tried to we'd mess up or something. But I thought we played pretty good tonight."

Louisville (8-1) finished the evening with 337 total yards including 282 yards on the ground. 10 different backs carried the ball for the Wildcats led by Jordan Murray, who had 85 yards on four carries and a touchdown.

Wyatt Roberts completed 4-of-6 passing for 42 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions. Desmond Goss made two catches for 34 yards and a score to lead Louisville. Louisiana-Lafayette commitment C.J. Bates sat out of the game due to a minor ankle injury.

Davais Schaffer took the first play from scrimmage 68-yards for a score to get the Wildcats on the board early.

Following a Caledonia fumble on their first play of the game at their own 25-yard line, Louisville went to work and scored once again five plays later when Schaffer plowed in from a yard out.

Louisville would add another touchdown on the board before the end of the opening quarter when Roberts found Goss on a 3-yard scoring strike to go up 21-0.

Four plays into the second quarter the Wildcats were in the end zone once more. This time it was Willie Carter bulldozing in from a yard out to give Louisville a 28-0 lead heading into halftime.

Following a scoreless third quarter, the Confederate would miss on their only scoring opportunity of the game. Caledonia orchestrated a 15-play, 56 yard drive but stalled at the LHS 21-yard line. James Longmire came on to attempt a 39-yard field goal but came up short.

It would be the Wildcats special teams unit who would be responsible for its next score midway through the final quarter. It looked to be disastrous as Louisville fumbled a punt but the ball was scooped up by Stefan Brown and returned 75-yards down the right sideline for the touchdown.

"That was pretty good and they did a good job on that," Miller said. "I got lost on it. We fumbled and I thought they had it until I saw (Brown) coming around and up the sideline."

With 27-seconds remaining Murray broke loose on a 79-yard touchdown run. Dalton Hudspeth finished off his perfect night of extra points with his sixth PAT to wrap up the scoring for Louisville.

Caledonia was shutout for the third time this season and were held to negative five yards passing on the night. The Confederates did find some success on the ground running behind Mississippi State offensive line commitment Cole Carter.

The 6-foot-6, 285-pounder helped pave the way for 188 yards on the ground for Caledonia.

"We got off to a bad start early on," Carter said. "But we were able to put some drives together in the second half and started to get our offense going a little bit."

Tyler Armistad led the rushing attack with 64 yards on eight carries but the Confederates fell to 3-6 on the campaign.