SPENCERVILLE-The Spencerville Bearcats will play their second to last home game on Friday night before starting a three game road trip before hosting rival Jefferson to end the season.
Last week it was a bit of a moral victory for the Spencerville Bearcats as they had 204 rushing yards against Bluffton but the Pirates used big plays to pull away for the 42-7 victory.
“I thought Friday really came down to two things,” said Spencerville head coach Kyle Koenig. “Us giving up some big plays in the passing game and hurting ourselves on the offensive side of the ball. I was really happy with how we were able to move the ball on offense it just came down to us making one mistake that would kill our momentum on that side of things. Thought we competed and played extremely hard throughout the entire game.”
The bulk of the load came from Zach Looser as Kolton Grigsby is out with an injury. Looser carried it a season high 27 times for 78 yards.
The opponent for the Bearcats is the winless Fort Loramie Redskins. Don’t let the record fool anyone as some consider them to be the best winless team in the state. The combined record for their opponents through 5 games is 20-5.
“Our biggest challenge is to play consistently,” said Fort Loramie head coach Spencer Wells. “We have played good football at times but haven’t done so consistently. We also need to play more complimentary football. We have struggled to play well in all 3 phases at the same time. We’ve also played a lot of good teams who haven’t made it easy on us, so credit to them.”
This Fort Loramie team has an explosive offense that has scored 25.6 points per game and can hurt teams in a lot of ways.
“Offensively we’ve grown a ton since week #1,” commented Wells. “We lead the NWC in first downs and can move the ball. We need to continue to find ways to create more explosive plays. Ray Hoying has been a very good runner for us and brings a ton of physicality. Credit to our offensive line, led by seniors Johnston Hollenbacher, Jace Ruhenkamp and Sammy Goubeaux. We have been able to run the ball well even when the defense expects it, which isn’t easy to do. Ace Boerger has also stepped up big for us at TE and is blocking very well. Freshman WR Tanner Eilerman leads the NWC in receiving, and we need to continue to find ways to get him the football in space.”
Fort Loramie is a football member only in the NWC and is in their second season in the conference. The Redskins have won the only two times they have faced which included their 42-21 win over the Bearcats last season and 35-7 in a non conference in 2022.
It’s homecoming week for the Bearcats this week and Koenig commended his team on their approach this week despite the distraction that homecoming brings.
“Homecoming is obviously and exciting time of the year, but our guys have done a good job of staying focused and making sure they come to practice with a positive mindset and a mindset to get better,” commented Koenig. “It is always a fun night with a lot of excitement and we just have to continue with our plan and compete on Friday and see what happens.”
Spencerville was able to drive on the Pirates last week but struggled to get to the end zone. Koenig talked about finishing those drives and turn them into points.
Wells spoke highly of the Bearcats coming into Friday.
“Spencerville is well coached and physical,” said Wells. “They won’t make it easy to move the football on them. They play very hard at the point of attack & can disrupt at the line of scrimmage. Offensively they are going to try to establish the run, which we’ve struggled to defend recently. We will need to bring it with our physicality and tackle well.”
Koenig spoke about the challenge that the Redskins bring to the table on Friday.
“Fort Loramie is a young group who have had a gauntlet of a schedule to start the season,” said Koenig. “They do a lot of things well and can put points up on offense. We are going to have to be sound defensively and tackle low with the big running back that they have and we need to pursue the football in the quick screen game. Coach Wells does a great job of getting his guys prepared and playing hard, so it is going to be a battle.”
Both coaches talked about the keys to victory on Friday.
“Keys to victory for us will be taking care of the football offensively,” concluded Wells. “We’ve had too many turnovers recently and need to prioritize protecting the ball. Defensively, we need to pursue the football and tackle with consistency. Also, limit the big plays by their offense and find ways to get stops.”
“Control time of possession is always key for us,” concluded Koenig. “Sustaining long drives and finishing those drives will be important. We need to clean up our penalties this week as well. We hurt ourselves too much with penalties in some big spots and some of that comes with being a little inexperienced, but at this point in the season it needs to be fixed. Finally, we have tackle in the open field. Being able to make 1 on 1 tackles is going to be big with their quick screen game.”
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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