{"id":196119,"date":"2025-08-20T22:07:04","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T03:07:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=196119"},"modified":"2025-08-20T22:07:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T03:07:06","slug":"2025-pigskin-pickem-week-no-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/08\/20\/2025-pigskin-pickem-week-no-1\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 Pigskin Pick’Em: Week No. 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

The 2025 high school football season is upon us and Pigskin Pick\u2019Em is back for its ninth season on the VW independent<\/em> Sports page. For those not familiar with the feature, here\u2019s how it works \u2013 it\u2019s pretty simple. Each week I\u2019ll try to predict the winners of games involving teams from the Western Buckeye League, Northwest Conference, Green Meadows Conference, and the Midwest Athletic Conference, along with Lima Sr. Last year, my record was 200-47 (80.9 percent). Each year, my goal to pick at least 80 percent of the games correctly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since everyone is playing a non-conference game this week, the schedule is large, with 31 games. The first week is always the toughest, simply because of teams with new personnel, new matchups, etc., but here goes anyway. On to this week\u2019s picks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Celina at St. Henry<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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What a way to start the 2025 season. Last year, Celina played Columbus South (0-10) in the opener and won handily 55-13, while St. Henry faced a different WBL school, St. Marys Memorial and lost 33-14. This game should be much closer. Both teams had up and down seasons last year, with Celina finishing 6-5 and St. Henry 7-5. My first inclination was to pick Celina and as I\u2019m writing this, I still feel that way, sort of. However, there\u2019s that nagging voice that says don\u2019t pick against a MAC school playing at home. I’m heeding that thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pick: St. Henry<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clay at Wapakoneta<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2021, 2022 and 2023, the Redskins opened with Marion Local. Last year it was Toledo St. John\u2019s. This year, it\u2019s the Clay Eagles, a school near Toledo. Clay, a Division II school, was 8-3 last year but graduated some key starters. Wapakoneta returns a ton of talent from last year\u2019s 12-1 team and the Redskins are considered a title contender in Division III. It\u2019s going to be a huge challenge for Clay to pick up a win in Auglaize County. I\u2019m going with the Redskins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pick: Wapakoneta<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crestview at Parkway<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the two team met in last year\u2019s season opener, Braxton Leeth ran for five touchdowns and the Knights ran away with a 49-7 victory. Crestview returns a good amount of starting experience while Parkway remains a bit on the young side. I\u2019m not saying it\u2019ll be 49-7 this year but I do like the Knights in this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The pick: Crestview<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Napoleon at Defiance (Thursday)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These two teams have played over 100 times, including last year\u2019s 35-34 game, won in overtime by Napoleon. I\u2019ll be very surprised if this year\u2019s game is that high scoring, simply because both teams lost a lot of offensive talent to graduation. This should be a competitive game though and one that should be close. After some back-and-forth on my part, I\u2019m going with the Wildcats by a very slim margin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pick: Napoleon<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert at Bryan<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bryan endured a 1-9 season in 2024 but the Golden Bears were able to give some younger players valuable varsity experience. Head coach Scott Staten is in year No. 2 of his rebuilding project and he wants his team to feature a strong running game. Meanwhile, Van Wert has a number of starters back, but a new quarterback in sophomore Zach Crummey. I don\u2019t believe Bryan will be able to keep pace in this one. The Cougars have won seven straight against the Golden Bears and I\u2019m confident they\u2019ll make it eight straight Friday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

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

Benjamin Logan at Bluffton: Bluffton<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coldwater at Valley View: Coldwater<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Columbus Grove at Pandora-Gilboa (Thursday): Columbus Grove<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delphos Jefferson at Evergreen: Evergreen<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delphos St. John\u2019s at Lehman Catholic: Delphos St. John\u2019s<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Fairview at Wauseon: Fairview<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fort Loramie at Minster: Minster<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indian Lake at Bath: Bath<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Liberty Center at Tinora: Liberty Center<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lima Sr. at Piqua: Lima Sr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

New Bremen at Wayne Trace: New Bremen<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newark Catholic at Allen East: Allen East<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ottawa-Glandorf at Liberty-Benton: Liberty Benton<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patrick Henry at Hicksville: Patrick Henry<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ponitz Tech at Fort Recovery: Fort Recovery<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shawnee at Lima Central Catholic (Thursday): Lima Central Catholic<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Adams (IN) at Marion Local: Marion Local<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

Swanton at Paulding: Paulding<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toledo Rogers at Elida: Elida<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Versailles at Milton-Union: Versailles<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports The 2025 high school football season is upon us and Pigskin Pick\u2019Em is back for its ninth season on the VW independent Sports page. For those not familiar with the feature, here\u2019s how it works \u2013 it\u2019s pretty simple. Each week I\u2019ll try to predict the winners of games involving teams from […]<\/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-196119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-04 01:09:46","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\/196119","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=196119"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":196147,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196119\/revisions\/196147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}