SPENCERVILLE-After facing the cream of the crop in the NWC the past two weeks the Spencerville Bearcats will hit the road on Friday to take on Fort Loramie.
The Bearcats still have plenty to play for as a winning season is still up for grabs and the playoffs are on the line. If the season ended today the Bearcats would have a home playoff game.
To keep a home playoff game the Bearcats would have to win out and that starts with the Redskins on Friday.
Fort Loramie comes in 2-3 but play a very daunting schedule. The Redskins faced MAC foes Minster and Versailles before getting a win against unbeaten at the time Covington. The Redskins first season in the NWC have had some barn burners as they defeated Crestview 28-21 before falling last week to LCC by the same count of 28-21.
“We play a very competitive scrimmage and non-conference schedule vs programs like St. Marys, Marion Local, Kenton, Minster, Versailles and Covington,” said Fort Loramie head coach Spencer Wells. “A lot of great tradition amongst all those schools, which has made us better as a result.”
Spencerville will face the league leader in passing on Friday as Gabe Hart has completed 34 of 49 passes for 446 yards to go along with 5 touchdowns and 1 interception.
Hart will look to the 1-2 punch in the passing game as Maxwell Maurer and Carter Eilerman tops the league in receptions on the season. Maurer has gotten 13 receptions on 195 yards and 3 touchdowns while Eilerman has 12 catches for 138 yards and a touchdown.
“Fort Loramie is a very big, athletic team that does a lot of the little things really well, which makes them a solid football team,” said Spencerville head coach Kyle Koenig. “They can run and pass effectively; they swarm to the football on defense, and they are battled tested for sure. They have gone through their own gauntlet this season with opening with Minster and Versailles. They have dealt with some adversity from the start, and they are much better than what their record shows. The key for us, like always, is control the line of scrimmage, if we cannot get off the ball and have some success in our run game it will be a tough evening for us.”
“We need to do a better job of getting movement up front and get our guys up to linebackers to open things up for Grady, Will, Kolten and Zach,” added Koenig. “On Defense our Defensive Line has to get some penetration and force more double teams. Being in a 3-4 defense, we rely on our front three guys to take on double teams and make it easier for our linebackers to read and make plays and the last few weeks, we have not forced many double teams. Lastly, we have to be extremely sound on defense. Fort Loramie is going to try and throw it on us . We have to be better in our coverage and we have to get pressure on the Quarterback, but he is an athlete so we cannot over run things because the QB will make you pay. They like to run their screens as well, so we have to be sound and read our keys and make the plays when we are there.”
The Bearcats went through murders row with Columbus Grove and Bluffton as they were out scored 110-14 in those two contests. However Koenig expects the Bearcats to regain their momentum from earlier in the season.
“The last couple of weeks have been rough for us obviously. Going from being 3-0 to having to go up against 2 great teams like Columbus Grove and Bluffton and losing the way we did is hard to take mentally,” said Koenig. “Our guys have done a good job this week of staying the course and continuing to work on getting better.”
Fort Loramie is learning in their first season as being football members of the NWC.
“For us it is all about consistency. Especially playing in a competitive conference such as the NWC,” said Wells. “Every team in our conference shows the ability to do great things. Spencerville is the latest example of that. I’m very impressed with how hard they play. Their RB’s run hard, they have a nice slot WR, the OL gets good movement at the point of attack, the defense pursues well.”
“I think the difference between winning and losing in the NWC will be who does it the most consistently. For us, that is our main focus,” added Wells. “Especially at the start of games. How do we play consistently great football for 4 quarters? If we can figure that out, we feel we can be a tough out for anyone.”
If the Bearcats want to win on Friday they’ll use their offense to chew up clock and put the ball in the end zone. Kolton Grigsby has shown he can handle the workload at the running back position as he is now 5th in the league in rushing with 36 carries and 142 yards.
If points per game and points given up are a given indication this one on Friday might just come right down to the wire. Fort Loramie averages 21 points per game while Spencerville averages 19.2 while the Redskins have given up 30 points per game while the Bearcats give up 33 a game.
Both coaches have mutual respect for one another as they will play each other for the first time since the 2022 season when the Redskins dominated Spencerville at Memorial field.
“Chris Sommers is a close friend, and I’ve always had high respect for Spencerville,” concluded Wells. “Coach Koenig and his staff do a great job, we will have to play very well to earn a win this week.”
“A win would be a huge boost of confidence for our guys, especially after the two weeks we have been through here,” concluded Koenig. “It is going to be a tough battle with Fort Loramie. It is a different opponent, one that we have not seen much of in the past besides a few scrimmages, so it’ll be a fun challenge this week. We just have to continue to get better and stick with the values we are preaching and then go play the game on Friday and see what happens.”
If you can’t make it to the game tune into Zsports 3 as Nate Stidham will have all the action with the pregame show at 6:30pm followed by kickoff at 7pm.
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