{"id":134451,"date":"2020-08-27T04:48:11","date_gmt":"2020-08-27T09:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=134451"},"modified":"2020-08-27T04:48:16","modified_gmt":"2020-08-27T09:48:16","slug":"pigskin-pickem-week-no-1-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2020\/08\/27\/pigskin-pickem-week-no-1-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Pigskin Pick’Em: Week No. 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent sports editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pigskin Pick\u2019Em is back for the most unique Ohio high school football season in memory. All teams will start the year with league or conference games before entering the playoffs in Week No. 7. Teams who opt out of the playoffs or lose in the postseason may return to regular season games, with a limit of 10 contests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2020 season kicks off Friday night with some intriguing matchups in the Northwest Conference, Western Buckeye League, Green Meadows Conference and the Midwest Athletic Conference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Picks for those games are listed below. Last year, I managed to go 169-48 (77.8 percent) during the regular season. The goal this season is to correctly pick winners at least 80 percent of the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The First Five<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crestview at Spencerville<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a tough NWC opener for the Knights as they begin the season against the ground-pounding Spencerville Bearcats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019ll be up to the Crestview defense to not allow Spencerville to go on lengthy time consuming drives, and when the Knights have the ball, they\u2019ll have to make the most of their opportunities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d like to pick Crestview here, but I think the Bearcats will present too many challenges in the season opener.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pick: Spencerville<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paulding at Delphos Jefferson<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delphos Jefferson is looking to improve after going 1-9 last season, but the Wildcats will have their hands full with Paulding. The Panthers have improved from year-to-year under head coach Tyler Arend and if they stay healthy, they could have a very interesting season in the NWC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pick: Paulding<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wayne Trace at Fairview<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing is for sure in this game \u2013 the ball will be in the air a lot and this GMC game will probably take a while, compared to other games around the area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard to pick against Fairview at home, so I\u2019m going with the Apaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pick: Fairview<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parkway at Delphos St. John\u2019s (Saturday)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Panthers improved greatly last season and were six points away from being 6-4. Meanwhile, the Blue Jays uncharacteristically lost nine straight last year and are looking to snap that streak on Saturday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Picking the road team in the MAC can be tricky, but that\u2019s what I\u2019m doing here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pick: Parkway<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elida at Van Wert<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cougars are eyeing three straight winning seasons and they\u2019ll try to get off on the right foot against a team that went 0-10 last year and has a new head coach in 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do expect Elida to be improved this season, but I believe the Cougars will have too many weapons for the Bulldogs to handle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pick: Van Wert<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best of the rest<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NWC<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ada at Allen East: Allen East<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Columbus Grove at Bluffton: Columbus Grove<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WBL<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Marys Memorial at Bath: St. Marys<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wapakoneta at Celina: Wapakoneta<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ottawa-Glandorf at Defiance: Ottawa-Glandorf<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kenton at Shawnee: Kenton<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GMC (note: Tinora has a bye week)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Antwerp at Ayersville: Ayersville<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hicksville at Edgerton: Hicksville<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MAC<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Versailles at Anna: Anna<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Henry at Coldwater: Coldwater<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marion Local at Fort Recovery: Marion Local <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minster at New Bremen: Minster<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lima Sr. at Toledo Central Catholic (TRAC): Toledo Central Catholic<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lima Central Catholic at Van Buren: Lima Central Catholic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports editor Pigskin Pick\u2019Em is back for the most unique Ohio high school football season in memory. All teams will start the year with league or conference games before entering the playoffs in Week No. 7. Teams who opt out of the playoffs or lose in the postseason may return to regular season […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-31 14:31:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134451\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}