SPENCERVILLE-The Bearcats knew they would have their hands full in the season opener last Friday night as the Anna Rockets showed just what they are in the 60-0 defeat. Now the Bearcats will hit the road for a 2-game road trip beginning on Friday in Haviland.
The Bearcats were able to move the ball in the second half of their game against Anna and will look to use that as a positive heading into their game against Wayne Trace on Friday.
“Spencerville is a team that always brings a physical mindset into the game,” said Wayne Trace head coach Matt Holden. “We will need to match or exceed their physicality in order to be where we want to be at the end of the game. They have some good players up front on both sides of the ball and have tough running backs and linebackers that will present challenges in the run game on both offense and defense for us.”
The Wayne Trace Raiders also fell to the hands of a MAC opponent last week in the New Bremen Cardinals 35-0.
“First and foremost, New Bremen is a very good football team,” said Holden. “They have talent, size, athleticism, physicality, and very good numbers. They are well-coached and do a great job of attacking your weaknesses in all phases of the game. I thought they were a better team this year than they were last year. Our takeaways are that we have a long way to go to be on the same level as a team like New Bremen, but we performed much better than we did a year ago. We had no turnovers against a very good team and we did have opportunities to move the ball on them if we cleaned up our blocking up front and executed a little better on some of our schemes. Defensively, we played them tough at certain points in the game but had breakdowns in coverage and in our run fits that led to big plays. We were able to get them off the field on fourth down twice which is good against a very high quality opponent. Our special teams showed the biggest need for improvement and those have been a focus this week in practice.”
The Bearcats saw some new faces on the field last Friday with Sophomore Henry Henschen and Junior Connor Heistan racking up the tackles on defense.
Spencerville was without the services of Junior running back Kolton Grigsby last week against Anna. However, Sophomore Maxwell Jurek and Junior Keaton Jacobs looked to be carrying the load in his absence.
Holden kept it simple for keys to victory on Friday.
“1. We need to continue to play clean football,” concluded Holden. “The last two years against this team we have turned the ball over 9 times, total, I believe. No turnovers in week 1 was a good start but we must continue that.
2. We need to stop the run. They are a physical team that wants to run the ball. We need to make them uncomfortable and get them behind the chains.
3. We need to find ways to get our most explosive players going offensively on Friday and generate some big plays.
4. Our special teams units must be improved. Coverage must be better and we need to have some good returns when given the opportunity.
SERIES NOTES: The Spencerville vs Wayne Trace series dates back to their first ever meeting in 2024 two years ago and it was the Bearcats closing it out late and escaped Haviland with a 28-27 victory. Last year it was the Bearcats pulling out a 25-21 victory on the home turf. The Bearcats have outscored the Raiders 53-48 in the last two years.
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 pregame show at 6:30 followed by kickoff at 7pm.
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