Bearcats ready to face Paulding in home opener

SPENCERVILLE-After picking up a tough victory on the road to begin the season, the Bearcats will be back in the friendly confines of Memorial field as they take on the Paulding Panthers (1-0).

The Panthers are coming off a 36-0 versus Swanton and are looking to start 2-0 for the first time in over 25 years. Last season it was a second half comeback before Spencerville picked up the victory.

Headlined by Nate Coulter 150 yards on the ground the Bearcats come in to the contest with the league early leading rusher and an offense attack that was very balanced last week.

In terms of preparing for the type of defense that the Bearcats will see there are some similarities to the two squads.

“Paulding runs an aggressive 3-4 defense that is very similar to us,” said Spencerville head coach Kyle Koenig. “They will send their middle backers on a lot of blitzes and try to make plays that way.”

Last Spencerville limited Ridgemont to 202 total yards and allowed just 89 yards on the ground.

Paulding will use a two-quarterback system but Koenig knows his defense will face a determined offense on Friday night.

“They will run a lot of zone schemes and look to pass quite a bit,” said Koenig. “Colten Hunt is their starting quarterback and does a decent job of commanding the offense and Jacob Fife will come in later in the game at quarterback and is a running threat and when he is in the game they want to utilize his athleticism and let him make plays with his legs.”

“They have two very strong running backs who run extremely hard,” added Koenig. “It will be important to get all 11 to the football when they are running it.”

Koenig knows just what the Bearcats need to do in order to be 2-0 for the first time in over a handful of seasons.

“We need to be able to gang tackle, keep their quarterbacks in the pocket in our blitzes and being able to handle their blitzes on offense,” concluded Koenig.

If you can’t make it be sure to tune in to Zsports 3 as Nate Stidham and Shane Falke will have all the action with the pregame show at 6:30 followed by kickoff at 7pm.