Louisville scored a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns to pull away for a 24-0 win over New Philadelphia Friday night in the season opening high school football game at Woody Hayes Quaker Stadium.
A pair of turnovers helped the Leopards in their season-opening win on the road.
After a scoreless first quarter during which the Quakers did not surrender a first down, New Philadelphia moved the ball into scoring territory on a long run by Kolston Fox, but the Leopards responded with a blocked field goal attempt. The blocked kick rolled out of bounds at the 1, giving the Leopards the entire field to work with.
And they used it all.
Senior quarterback Gabe Stoffer completed a pass on the first play to give the Leopards their first first down of the game.They moved the length of the field, scoring on a quarterback sneak from the 1 with 1:37 left in the half.
Louisville added a 34-yard field goal in the third quarter and led 10-0 heading to the final frame.
It stayed that way until the 4:50 mark, when junior quarterback Parker Rieger was picked off on a fourth-down play. Luke Seaman grabbed a contested pass for Louisville and returned it 55 yards for a touchdown that would stretch the lead to 17-0.
Rieger threw another fourth-down interception later in the quarter that Louisville turned into a Stoffer touchdown pass to ice the game.
“He was trying to make a play, which is what he’s supposed to do,” New Philadelphia coach Mike Johnson said of the fourth-quarter turnovers. “That didn’t help us.
“We didn’t have great field position, but our offense is going to have to be more consistent.”
Stoffer, who ran for a score and passed for another, kept the Leopards’ offense moving with a number of elusive scrambles. He was named the Klar’s XL Screen Printing Player of the game.
The Quakers will play on the road next week, when they travel to Beloit to take on West Branch, which lost its opener 26-21 at Canfield.
Johnson was not happy with the opening-week loss, but it’s giving up on his team. “It’s not the … the world’s not falling apart just yet,” he said.
"Every fighter is fueled by his past and whatever they’ve got going on. What got him to this point, I can’t tell you, but whatever it is, he uses it very well to do what he’s doing here.”
