SPENCERVILLE-It came down to mental mistakes last Friday when the Bearcats traveled to Columbus Grove. Spencerville hopes practice this week fixed those mistakes as unbeaten Bluffton invades Memorial Field on Friday night.
“Last week we did a terrible job of taking care of the ball,” said Spencerville head coach Kyle Koenig. “We need to be better in the turnover column this week if we want to win this game.”
“Last week we had a new center and the exchange was not getting there. We’ve had a good week of practice and some more time to work with the two so I am expecting that issue to be fixed.” added Koenig.
It will be a ground and pound type of night on Friday on both sides. Bluffton comes in as the top team in terms of total yards on offense with 359.8 per game while the Bearcats are seventh in the NWC in total yards at 236.0.
Being 4-0 and in contention for an NWC crown isn’t something that’s being talked about in the Bluffton locker room.
“As a program we have not really focused on being 4-0, as our goal each week is always to “win the next one.” It is great that we have started strong, however the NWC schedule is a grind and we can’t get caught looking back at games that are already over.” said Bluffton head coach Jeff Richards.
It hasn’t been just the offense for Bluffton that’s been impressive it’s also been the defense. The Pirates come in just giving up seven points a game and first in total yards allowed at 185.3 per game.
Both coaches know just what they need to do to get the job done on Friday night.
“Spencerville is a solid, physical team with skill players who could pose problems,” concluded Richards. “They have a good sized quarterback with a strong arm and we will need to play a disciplined 48 minute game to win and we have to limit big plays on defense, win the turnover margin, and to win the line of scrimmage.
“We’ve had a good week of practice this week and going in to this week our defensive and offensive line has to be more physical. We did not do a great job of getting penetration on defense and we did not move anybody offensively. Those two groups need to be better this week if we want to succeed.” concluded Koenig. “Bluffton is another really good NWC opponent. They are playing really good football right now and are really imposing their will on their opponents in their run attack.” concluded Koenig. “We need to be able to keep the edge defensively and really stop their running attack. For us offensively we are going to see the same defense that we run. They are going to slant and angle at us. They are going to blitz from just about everywhere. Our line has to have their eyes up and know their assignments because Bluffton is going to try and confuse us up front in any way they can.”
If you can’t make it to the game tune in to Zsports3 as Nate Stidham and Shane Falke will have all the action with the pregame show at 6:30 followed by kickoff at 7pm.
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