SPENCERVILLE-The crowd will come together at Memorial Field for the beginning of football season on Friday night when the Spencerville Bearcats hosts the talented Anna Rockets.
“Opening up at home is always a nice feeling, but this year especially with some younger pieces making their varsity debut, it allows them to have some comfortability out there for the first time which I hope helps them out a little bit.” Said Spencerville head coach Kyle Koenig.
The ole saying is the standard is the standard. The playoffs have become a thing at Rocket nation as they have made the playoffs 8 of the last nine seasons going back to 2015. The most memorable being the state championship in 2019.
“Anna is going to be a really good football team this year,” commented Koenig. “Their Quarterback is one of the most dynamic players in the area, and they have really good pieces around them. They were young last year and grew up a lot to be a really good veteran team this year.”
“We just need to go out and compete and make adjustments as we go and see what happens.” Added Koenig.
Spencerville took on Anna in the season opener last season and the Rockets made quick work of Spencerville 55-0.
The Rockets were mostly freshman and sophomores when the Bearcats visited them last fall. Starting quarterback Logan Ziegenbusch is back for his junior campaign after throwing for 1890 yards and 23 touchdowns while also making 3rd team all state in division 6 last year while rushing for 1,248 yards and 18 touchdowns.
If Spencerville wants to put up their best defense on Friday night it might just come from their wing-t offense and sustain long drives. Junior Kolton Grigsby will head the three-pong monster on offense. Last season Grigsby racked up 333 yards in eight games while fellow junior running back Keaton Jacobs logged in 96 yards in 7 games last season.
“Our guys have done a great job of coming in with great attitudes and a mindset of growth.” said Koenig. “Moving some pieces around, guys have had to learn some new spots, but they have done a good job of adjusting things on the fly. I’m looking forward to seeing them grow and come together even more as the season goes by.”
The Bearcats did have some health challenges in the preseason as they mighty Bearcats have just 32 players on their roster but Koenig liked the resilience of his team.
“It is a day-by-day thing for us,” explained Koenig. “Our guys understand that these are the numbers that we have, and we have to be able to adjust and move people around to make sure we are at our best. Our guys have done a good job of having that next guy up mindset, and we just have to be able to roll with the punches that this season brings us and make the most of it.”
Koenig gave his keys to victory on Friday night.
“Keys for us to control the line of scrimmage but also control the game clock,” concluded Koenig. “Get some drives developing so we can keep it out of their Quarterbacks hands a bit will be helpful. We need to be aware of the Quarterback at all times. He has that option to keep it and make a play no matter what is going on, so being able to keep him in check will be huge.”
If you can’t make it to the game tune in to Zsports 3 as Shane Falke and Brock Blythe will have all the action with the pregame show at 6:30pm followed by kickoff at 7pm.
B-rockblythe.org 