MINERAL — Prior to every home game, the Louisa County football team runs out of the tunnel behind a flag that says “Be Elite.”
The Lions were certainly that Friday night as they rolled to a 31-0 victory over Charlottesville in their annual homecoming game at Mark L. Fischer Field.
Landon Wilson ran for a touchdown and threw for two more as Louisa extended its Jefferson District winning streak to 28 straight games. Wilson rushed for a team-high 86 yards and a touchdown on nine carries. The junior also completed 4-of-9 passes for 114 yards and two scores.
Louisa (4-1, 2-0 Jefferson District) wasted little time getting started.
Wilson faked a handoff to Jordan Smith, then rumbled 55 yards down the right sidelines for a touchdown and a 7-0 Lions lead with 11:06 left in first.
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Stephen Dean got the ball back for Louisa with an interception, which led to a 45-yard field goal from Caden Lundy that gave the Lions a 10-0 lead with 5:13 left in quarter.
Wilson said the big first quarter energized Louisa.
“We started the game off with a big run and that brought us a lot of energy,” Wilson said. “We came out on defense and got it right back, three-and-out and it just took off from there.”
Charlottesville (1-4, 0-3) put together a solid second offensive drive and had a first and goal at the 9, but the Louisa defense stiffened and a muffed snap on a field goal attempt ended a promising drive for the Black Knights on first play of second quarter.
Smith then capped a 16-play, 80-yard drive with a bruising 17-yard touchdown run to put Louisa up 17-0 with 4:54 left in first half.
The Lions closed out the first half on a high note when Wilson hit Takai Comfort on a slant pattern for 20-yard touchdown to give Louisa a 24-0 lead with 21.1 left in the second quarter.
“[Assistant] Coach [Dillon Hollins] has been staying after practice with the receivers,” Wilson said. “Aidan Perry works hard and he likes to stay after practice, doing the tennis ball drills and [improving] that hand-eye coordination. He works hard. Tyreke Coleman has been getting a lot more reps because he works hard as well.”
In the third, Wilson tossed his second touchdown of the night, hitting Aidan Perry on a 24-yard scoring strike with 3:02 left in the stanza to extended the lead to 31-0.
“We kept scoring,” Wilson said. “Talley is coming up; y’all have got to watch for [Austin] Talley. Jordan’s a playmaker, my receivers were catching the ball, it was a good night.”
Dean capped the victory with his second interception of the night on a diving catch to secure the Louisa defense’s third shutout of the season. The Lions surrendered just 100 yards of total offense against the Black Knights as they extended their winning streak in the Charlottesville series to five games.
Wilson praised the defense and admits that they often fly under the radar.
“We’ve got Stephen Dean, Qwenton Spellman, Eli Brooks, Jacob Bundrick balling out,” Wilson said. “We’ve got a lot of playmakers and all of them played well tonight.”