DEGRAFF-It turned to be a nice cool night for football as the Spencerville Bearcats visited the Riverside Pirates. The Bearcats forced eight Riverside turnovers to give them a 24-21 victory.
“It was a very interesting week of practice,” said Spencerville head coach Kyle Koenig. “I’m extremely proud of guys for being flexible and being able to come away with the win is great.”
Both teams traded possessions in the opening quarter but Spencerville took advantage of their second drive that led to a one yard run by Freshman Kolton Grigsby that gave the Bearcats a 7-0 lead.
Riverside was able to tie the game in the second quarter as Gavin Osborne threw a 74 yard pass to Dominic Smith to tie the game at 7.
The Bearcats did a couple of nice drives in the second quarter but a couple of missed field goals kept the game even.
“I think we got a little field goal happy in the first half,” said Koenig. “Our defense did a great job of giving us great field possession and wish we could have capitalized on a couple more of those chances but when we did it was good.”
Spencerville grabbed the lead late in the quarter as a four yard run by Zach Looser gave them a 14-7 lead.
The ensuing kickoff was fumbled and recovered by Austin McMichael. The Riverside defense stiffened and led to a 25 yard field goal by Carder Orr to give them a 17-7 lead at halftime.
The visitors were banged up in the second half and counted on Grigsby for the ball of the carries.
“Kolton is such a special kid,” added Koenig. “What he did is so hard to do with playing H back to getting moved to running back and then Zach went down and got moved to fullback. On defense he got moved to mike linebacker where he hasn’t gotten much reps in practice and played well in that position tonight.”
A turnover on downs by Riverside gave the Bearcats a short drive that belonged to Grigsby. Kolton run had him knocked out of bounds at the two yard line but later scored on a five yard run to make it 24-7.
Riverside didn’t go down without a fight as a fake screen led to a 45 yard pass from Osborne to Landon Purtee but the extra point hit the crossbar to keep it at 24-13.
The defense was the talk of the Bearcats in the second half. The Bearcats allowed just 33 yards on the ground to keep the defense flying around to make plays.
Spencerville did play the bend but don’t break defense but it broke in the final minute as Osborne found Purtee from 28 yards out and the two point conversion to Purtee got them within 24-21.
The onside kick went right to Braylon McNett and the offensive lineman sealed a 3-0 start for the Bearcats for the first time since 2015.
Spencerville will begin NWC play next Friday at home against powerhouse Columbus Grove.
“We have been underdogs all season long,” concluded Koenig. “Next week that mentality won’t change for our kids because we have to continue to get better every day and focusing on the things that we do and slowly climb up that mountain.”
“It’s going to be a battle but the entire conference is a battle but I think this game will show the toughness of our team and I’m looking forward to the challenge.” Said Koenig.
Box score
Spencerville 7 – 10 – 7 – 0 – 24
Riverside 0 – 7 – 6 – 8 – 21
Total yards
Spencerville:247
Riverside:396
Penalties
Spencerville:5
Riverside:3
Turnovers
Spencerville:2
Riverside:8
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