SPENCERVILLE-It was a tough ending to a tough week for the Spencerville Bearcats as they lost 28-14 to Riverside last Friday night. Now the Bearcats will look to put that behind them on Friday for the NWC opener when they travel to Clymer stadium to take on the Columbus Grove Bulldogs.
For Spencerville last week it was a tale of two halfs as they hung in right with Riverside as the two teams traded touchdowns that had them tied at 14 at halftime. However, Riverside put some pressure on Spencerville and was able to score the last 14 points of the game to get the victory.
“I think last week really came down to us not being able to get that stop on 3rd down,” said Spencerville head coach Kyle Koenig. “I felt like we did really well getting them into some third down situations and unfortunately we were not able to make that crucial stop when we needed it.”
Spencerville will have a very daunting task on Friday night when they visit the Columbus Grove Bulldogs. To a lot of people surprise, Columbus Grove has started the season 0-3 for the first time since 2017 when they finished 2-8.
Columbus Grove put together a good performance last week when they lost a heartbreaker to Patrick Henry 26-21.
“After a rough game with an extremely talented and physical liberty Benton I wasn’t sure how we would respond,” said longtime Columbus Grove head coach Andy Schafer. “Defense and special teams started off strong. Offense was a work in progress. The thing that really impressed me though was the way our team adjusted at halftime. Kids played with effort which was our key value for the week. Effort almost got us a win.”
Spencerville moved the football well in the first half last week as they found the end zone twice. Koenig talked about what worked well for them last week.
“I think in the first half we had some success early with being able to get to the outside on them with Kolten and being able to do so was big for us,” commented Koenig. “Our second touchdown was just what we were seeing from their corners and how they were playing our single receiver which led to Tyler and Grady being able to connect for a touchdown pass. Both did a great job.”
Last year the Columbus Grove Bulldogs were down to their third string QB when they came to the Ville last season but that didn’t seem to matter as they rolled to a 45-7 victory. Landon Best returns as the starting Quarterback this year.
“I always review the previous year, but I never really game plan off of it,” said Schafer. “The primary focus needs to be on us more than Spencerville. We are still developing, coaching our tails off and finding our identity. We are close, once we get that locked in the rest will take care of itself.”
“Obviously Grove is a way better team than what their record shows,” said Koenig. “They have tremendous athletes all over the field and it is going to be a tough challenge for us. I think the big thing for us is to continue to do what we have been doing these past few weeks, make some adjustments where we need to and keep things simple for our guys to be able to just go out and play. They have great athleticism on the outside and a QB that commands the offense really well. We will have to play sound defensively and make open field tackles when those opportunities come up.”
If the Bearcats pull off a mild upset on Friday it would set the NWC area by surprise as the Bulldogs have not an NWC game since 2022 when Allen East shut them out 7-0. They also bring a 20 game home NWC streak on the line with those same Mustangs being the last team to come into Clymer Stadium and get a win back in 2019.
“Our freshman class were 3rd graders the last time we lost a home game at Clymer stadium (seniors 6th),” commented Schafer. “The feeling after the game was somber. Honestly no one knew what to say. Just like it was the first time we’ve ever experienced a loss. We put a large emphasis on making up for that. We don’t talk about streaks when we are in it, but we do talk about it when it ends. Not something we want to experience again.”
“I think going into this, yes you prepare for what you are going to see, but we have to focus on the things that we can control and what we need to get better at,” said Koenig. “Grove is going to be hungry to get into the win column, and that is how it should be. They are well coached and are going to be ready to go. It is our job as a team to be ready and step up to the challenge that is presented in front of us and be better than we were last week. That is always our emphasis, continue to get better each day and each week.”
Both coaches talked about the keys to victory on Friday night.
“We played a tough schedule for a reason, now go into conference play and be the team we know we can be.” Concluded Schafer.
“Keys for us to control time of possession,” concluded Koenig. “Being able to sustain some drives and keep the ball out of their playmakers hands will be huge. Open field tackling is another. They will run a lot of screens and get their skill guys in the open field. We need eleven hats to the football at all times. Being solid on special teams is another. They have great skill guys, who can bust out a return at any point so we need to be sound on our special teams to help out with field position as well as containing a big momentum swing for them on special teams.”
If you can’t make it to the game tune in to Zsports 3 as Nate Stidham and Shane Falke will have all the action with the Miami Erie propane pregame show at 6:30pm followed by kickoff at 7pm.
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