SPENCERVILLE- 13 points. 13 points. That’s what the Bearcats were favored to lose by on Friday night when the Allen East Mustangs came to town for homecoming. The Bearcats had other plans as they made some key stops and outlasted a furious rally from the visitors to win 23-20.
“We always have to make things interesting don’t we,” said Spencerville head coach Kyle Koenig. “We responded to the challenge that we put out in front of them this week and they didn’t let the last play affect the next play and I’m just super proud of how they played tonight.”
In the first quarter it was a battle of the defenses. As both teams traded punts and turnovers as neither team scored in the quarter.
Spencerville defense was the story as they forced Allen East backwards. Trevor Whitney was the main focus of the Spencerville defense with quarterback hurries and sacks.
“You know having Josh (Schindler) back but Trevor Whitney I’d just a phenomenal football player,” said Koenig. “Trevor does a lot of good things for us and it’s nice to get a lead and we can find some weaknesses on their defense.”
Spencerville was able to crack the scoreboard in the middle of the second quarter as a one yard run by Grady Smith gave the hosts a 6-0. An offside penalty on the extra point allowed the Bearcats to go for two and the run by Zack Looser made it 8-0.
Allen East responded with a drive of their own and cut the lead to 8-6. The two point conversion was intercepted by Smith to keep the Bearcats ahead by a deuce.
Spencerville ran four minutes off the clock on their next series and it led to a 4-yard run by Looser to make it 14-6. The extra points was not attempted on the bad snap to give the Bearcats a 14-6 into halftime.
The Bearcats received the second half kickoff and drove right down the field and scored on a one yard run Smith for his second score of the night to lead 21-6.
Allen East next possession went backwards and were forced to punt from their own end zone. The snap went behind the punter into the end zone for a safety and the lead grew to 23-6.
Spencerville’s next drive led to a turnover on downs and Allen East found their success through the air as a 78 yard pass from Keagan Jones to Deacon Jones cut the lead to 23-13.
Allen East then got the onside after it was muffed by Chandler Bassitt and the Mustangs continued the Jones from 48 yards out and just 16 seconds later the game was now 23-20.
“After they scored the second time we kind of pulled our kids to the side and we told them that this is what we have been talking about all week which was not letting the last play affect the next play,” said Koenig.
“We said we got beat something happened but the game is not over and we got to respond and our kids responded on our next drive,” added Koenig.
Spencerville then went back on offense and continued to get first downs and the Mustangs only had one timeout left to burn but Spencerville faced a 3rd and 15 with a little over three minutes left but a reversal to Smith gave them just enough for a first down and Bearcats got two more first downs to run out the clock to get the homecoming victory.
Spencerville improves to 4-3 on the season and earned some major computer points. The Bearcats will continue their home stand next week when they host LCC.
Spencerville also had their pregame festivities where seniors Carder Orr was crowned homecoming king while Claire Zerbe was announced as the homecoming queen.
Allen East 0 – 6 – 0 – 14 – 20
Spencerville 0 – 14 – 9 – 0 – 23
Total yards
Allen East:275
Spencerville:294
Penalties
Allen East:10
Spencerville:5
Turnovers
Allen East:4
Spencerville:4
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