{"id":196633,"date":"2025-09-03T20:40:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T01:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=196633"},"modified":"2025-09-03T20:40:51","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T01:40:51","slug":"pigskin-pickem-week-no-3-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/09\/03\/pigskin-pickem-week-no-3-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Pigskin Pick’Em: Week No. 3"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

Week No. 3 of the high school football season is here. It\u2019s the final week of non-conference games for teams in the Northwest Conference and Green Meadows Conference. The Midwest Athletic Conference begins conference play Friday night and it\u2019ll be league game No. 2 for teams in the Western Buckeye League. When Friday\u2019s games are over, there will be just two undefeated teams left in the WBL. It\u2019s hard to believe that once this weekend\u2019s games are done, 30 percent of the regular season will be gone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week I managed to go 21-5 (80.7 percent), which took my season record to 46-11 (80.7 percent). On to this week\u2019s picks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elida (1-1) at Shawnee (1-1)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This should be a close game and it\u2019s a tough one to pick. One could easily argue that both teams should be 2-0. Their losses have come by a combined eight points. If Elida can find just a bit more consistency on offense, the Bulldogs are going to be a handful. They\u2019re not that far away. Having said that, I can\u2019t shake the feeling that the Indians will get the victory, so I\u2019m sticking with that thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Marion Local (2-0) at St. Henry (2-0)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A pair of undefeated teams in the MAC opener \u2013 battle tested Marion Local and a rapidly improving St. Henry team. There are some who think the Redskins have a chance at pulling off the upset but with all due respect to St. Henry, I am not among them. The Marion Local machine will roll in this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pick: Marion Local<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Marys Memorial (0-2) at Celina (0-2)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have to admit, I didn\u2019t expect both of these teams to be 0-2 entering the Battle of Grand Lake. However, it\u2019s accurate to say that both teams have faced difficult opponents. The question is, which one is going to rebound and win this one? Celina has scored just twice this season but the Roughriders have allowed 91 points in two games. Something has to give here. Celina isn\u2019t an easy place to play and I won\u2019t be too surprised if the Bulldogs pick up win No. 1. However, I think the Roughriders will claim the win and bragging rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Crestview (1-1) at Wayne Trace (0-2)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been a long time since the Raiders have won a game in this non-conference rivalry series, 2013 to be exact, so history is on the side of the Knights. Wayne Trace is coming off a tough loss at Spencerville (25-21) but there were some bright spots for the Raiders in that one. Crestview lost to Marion Local 63-0. Can the Knights shake that off in time for Friday night? Throw in the whole rivalry thing and it makes this game even more intriguing. Then there\u2019s this \u2013 not counting last year, the previous three games in this series were decided by 1, 8, and 7 points. Recent history says it should be close. However, I think the Knights will prove to be too much in this one and will leave Haviland with the win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Bath (2-0) at Van Wert (2-0)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year\u2019s game between these two schools was a wild one, as Bath posted a 43-37 win in the closing seconds. The Wildcats appear to be even more explosive this season as evidenced by scoring 106 points and 542 total yards per game in their first two games. Meanwhile, Van Wert has shown noticeable improvement defensively, which was and still is a key to the season. The Cougars have given up what I would consider one big play this season \u2013 a 59-yard touchdown pass against Elida. How will the defense do against Bath this week? We\u2019ll find out Friday night. Another factor is going to be turnovers \u2013 Van Wert simply can\u2019t have any against Bath. Do I think the Cougars can win this game? Yes, but I\u2019m giving a slight edge to the Wildcats. I will say this – I won’t be surprised at all if the Cougars pull off what might be termed a mild upset. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

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

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

Fort Recovery at Coldwater: Coldwater<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

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

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

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

Non-conference<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allen East at Indian Lake: Indian Lake<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Antwerp at Hilltop (Saturday): Antwerp<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Archbold at Tinora: Archbold<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bluffton at Bowsher: Bluffton<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Columbus Grove at Patrick Henry: Patrick Henry<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

Lehman Catholic at Fort Loramie: Fort Loramie<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lima Central Catholic at Carey: Carey<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lima Sr. at Marion Harding: Lima Sr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Paulding at Delphos Jefferson (Saturday): Paulding<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Riverside at Spencerville: Spencerville<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports Week No. 3 of the high school football season is here. It\u2019s the final week of non-conference games for teams in the Northwest Conference and Green Meadows Conference. The Midwest Athletic Conference begins conference play Friday night and it\u2019ll be league game No. 2 for teams in the Western Buckeye League. When […]<\/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-196633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-04 19:44:13","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\/196633","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=196633"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":196655,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196633\/revisions\/196655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}