SPENCERVILLE-The Spencerville Bearcats did find the end zone for the first time against Crestview last Friday night. However it was the visiting Knights that pulled away for the 41-8 victory.
“I thought last week we took another step in the right direction in the first half,” said Spencerville head coach Kyle Koenig. “We were moving the ball a little bit better than previous games but just made too many costly errors that would eventually stall us out. We have to do a better job of staying disciplined in our assignments and getting those costly penalties out of the game because they can kill drives.”
Spencerville will continue their two game home-stand on Friday when they host the Columbus Grove Bulldogs. The Bulldogs are coming off the first NWC loss since 2019 as the LCC took down Grove 13-6.
“To me it’s not getting back at Spencerville more like getting ourselves fixed,” said Columbus Grove head coach Andy Schaffer. “We need to understand we all took part in last weeks lost, it wasn’t just one unit, or one person it was all of us. How do we now overcome it and fix ourselves, that’s the real question. Way too many mistakes last week.”
Columbus Grove did return back some key players from their division 7 final four run last year in the Baxter brothers Gavin and Trenton.
This year was a new signal caller for Grove with a familiar name. Former LCC coach Scott Palte son Rylan Palte has taken the snaps while dad Scott calls the plays for the Bulldogs this season. Palte has completed 25 of 45 passes for 339 yards with 5 touchdowns and 6 interceptions in his varsity debut season. He is a dual threat QB with 33 carries for 217 yards and 2 touchdowns on the young season.
For Spencerville it was scary moment for senior Landon Kahle who had to be carted off the field in the 3rd quarter in last week’s game against Crestview. However it has all been good news for Kahle who was been released from the hospital and resting.
“As a team, we are very lucky to have a kid like Landon Kahle,” said Koenig. “He was playing offensive line last year for us and was an Honorable Mention linebacker. This year he has had to play offensive line, running back, linebacker and safety. Not to mention, every special team as well. He has had a great attitude and done whatever has been asked of him and has always been the team first kind of guy. I think he deserves that recognition.”
Alex Coulter gave the Bearcats a silver lining on a 15 yard TD run and a two point conversion from Titus Snyder gave the Bearcats some confidence on offense last week.
“Last week was obviously extremely emotional for our guys after the game,” commented Koenig. “I think it really shows how much this team cares for Landon Kahle the person and not just the football player. I was proud for how the guys finished the game on a positive note, and I know Landon was as well.”
For Spencerville to stay in the game on Friday they must use their best defense which will be their offense. The Bearcats have tallied 500 yards of total offense and Koenig knows that they must use it to their advantage come Friday.
“Evan stepped up for us last week,” commented Koenig. “Evan has always been a hard-nosed runner; I thought he did a really good job running the ball for us last week and had a big impact for us. His job was not easy, utilizing the full back is a big part of our offense and to add in him having to play linebacker as well. I felt he did a really good job for it all being his first true taste of varsity football.”
For Columbus Grove losing a football game is rare especially in the NWC so Schaffer hopes it gives them some juice heading into this week.
“We won’t talk about Spencerville much this week,” commented Schaffer. “To be completely honest Monday’s practice will 100% be on Grove. That’s what we’ve often done in the past. You can’t look at someone else until you look at yourself first.”
“Grove is a really good football team,” said Koenig. “They have athletes all around. They are big and physical up front as well. They really utilize different formations to get the numbers advantage they want for their run game, and they can be explosive with anything that they do. We are going to have match the physicality that the bring and really do a good job of keeping everything in front of us and finishing plays with gang tackle to be successful.”
Both coaches gave their keys to the game on Friday.
“mistake free football. Win the trenches.” Concluded Schaffer.
“The keys for us are that we have to control the time of possession and the line of scrimmage,” concluded Koenig. “We need to clean up our penalties. We had too many last week that put is in some tough situations to get stops. We need to clean things up with special teams as well.”
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 Beantown Barbers pregame show at 6:30pm followed by kickoff at 7pm.
Series notes: Columbus Grove currently leads the series against the Bearcats 12-11 with the Bulldogs winning the last six meetings. Spencerville last win against Grove came in 2018 in a 23-21 victory over the Bulldogs.
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