SPENCERVILLE-Last season it was Grady Smith that ignited the Bearcat offense against Jefferson and went off as he threw for 339 yards against the Wildcats but Smith threw three interceptions that proved to be the difference and the Wildcats defeated the Bearcats in back to back seasons for the first time since Chris Sommers led the Wildcats to three straight wins against Spencerville.
Fast forward to this season.
The roles have reversed this season as the Bearcats will look to go back to .500 before the playoffs while Jefferson will look to end the season on a good note and potentially knock the Bearcats out of a playoff spot.
Spencerville has fallen on tough times the last few weeks as they have gone 1-5 since their 3-0 start to begin the season including their 42-13 loss to Crestview last week.
“Last week seemed like nothing would go our way all game long,” said Spencerville head coach Kyle Koenig. “We had a few turnovers and costly penalties that really hurt us throughout the game, and we struggled making tackles. That will be a big emphasis this week. Getting multiple guys to the football and finishing tackles.”
It’s a new man in charge of the Wildcats as Allan Pohlman will complete his first season in charge on Thursday when they host the boys south of 66.
Jefferson has had to deal with injuries including quarterback Karder Agner who made the switch from Wide Receiver this season. So the Wildcats had to turn to last year’s quarterback Luke Rode who will start on Thursday at QB for the Wildcats.
One of the injuries for Jefferson is sophomore running back Dean Trentman. The St.John’s transfer remembers the Bearcats well as he ran for 385 yards against these Bearcats last season. Trentman is expected to be back this week against Spencerville.
As for Spencerville they have stayed relatively healthy this season. Spencerville will look to get back to the ground and pound to a team that gives up a league worst 202.8 yards per game.
“This game is huge for momentum purposes,” said Koenig. “Being able to go into the postseason at .500 and giving us some extra confidence going into things would be a big factor for us. This is very big game for us and we need to come out and be ready to go from the start.”
As for this rivalry this will be the 22nd meeting of the Battle of Route 66. Spencerville leads the all time series 11-10 and will look to pick their first win over Jefferson on Thursday since 2021.
“This week is such a big week for the community and the team,” said Koenig. “Last year we did not play up to the level we needed to win the game, and we lost. This week has been a lot of reminding our guys of how that felt and how we need to come out from the start and be ready to go because last year was a slow start and we made our comeback a little too late. We need to put together four quarters of a football to get the job done. This game means a lot to people, and we have put the importance of it on our guys and we will see what happens.”
This will be the first Thursday night game that the Bearcats will play this season.
“Playing on a Thursday this week has its positives and negatives,” said Koenig. “Its a different feel and adds a little more excitement knowing we are really one of the few games going that night and it allows for a little more media coverage and everything else on the outside to get the guys excited for the big game. On the other side of it, is that it shortens the prep time down for us. We moved our schedule up a day and had to do some Monday preparation on Saturday morning to get things in order. I think it will be a fun atmosphere and be a fun game to be a part of.”
Koenig talked about the keys to victory against the boys north of 66 on Thursday.
“The keys to the game for us is getting off to a good start,” said Koenig. “We have not been able to start things off on the right foot the past couple of weeks. Whether it is getting a stop on defense or scoring we have not been able to get that going, so the start of the game will be big for us. We need to control the line of scrimmage. We need to be able to get some movement from our offensive and defensive lines if we want to be successful and do the things we want to do. Lastly, we need to get pressure and force some turnovers. We need to get to the quarterback and make him uncomfortable and hopefully force them into some turnovers to get some momentum going for us.”
As always if you can’t make to the game tune into Zsports 3 as Nate Stidham and Shane Falke will have all the action with the pregame show at 6:30 pm followed by kickoff at 7pm.
B-rockblythe.org 