{"id":198605,"date":"2025-10-21T20:40:27","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T01:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=198605"},"modified":"2025-10-21T20:44:35","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T01:44:35","slug":"cougars-hope-to-end-season-with-a-w","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/10\/21\/cougars-hope-to-end-season-with-a-w\/","title":{"rendered":"Cougars hope to end season with a ‘W’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

With the playoffs seemingly out of reach, Van Wert has two goals this Friday night \u2013 send the seniors out with a win and play well in front of the school\u2019s 2000 state runner-up team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cougars (4-5, 3-5 WBL) will host Kenton in the regular season finale and in all likelihood, it will be the final game of the season. While Van Wert hasn\u2019t been completely eliminated from playoff contention, there\u2019s just a one percent chance the Cougars will get in, according to the website fantastic50.net<\/a>. Van Wert is currently 15th in Division IV Region 14 and with the OHSAA\u2019s new playoff format this year, only the top 12 teams per region will qualify for the postseason. A win itself over Kenton 1-8 (1-7 WBL) alone won\u2019t do it, as the Cougars would need a number of other things to happen within the region, some realistic, some not. That doesn\u2019t change this week\u2019s goals though.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Geary Hilleary is one of 13 seniors that will suit up for the Cougars Friday night. Bob Barnes\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cWith this being our last game we want to do everything in our power to make it a positive, memorable experience for our seniors,\u201d Van Wert head coach Keith Recker said. \u201cThey deserve everyone in our program to have a great week of preparation, continue to change our best, and perform on Friday night.  Seniors will remember their last game, and we want to make sure it’s a great memory.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

13 seniors are on the team \u2013 Kaiven Welch, Cam Werts, Finley Dickinson, Colton Richardson, Caine Shobe, Geary Hilleary, Griffin McCracken, Briggs Wallace, Trevor Dotson, Payton Morefield, Javon Smith, Nick Edwards, and Conner Harris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cougars are returning home after last Friday\u2019s 45-24 loss to Shawnee, the WBL\u2019s most improved team this year. Despite the loss, Recker said there were some bright spots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought our special teams did a good job Friday,\u201d Recker said. \u201cGriff (McCracken) is kicking the ball very consistently on extra points and field goals and Alex Benner at holder and Cohen Bragg at snapper have been executing all season. Griff is also placing the ball very well on his kickoffs, keeping teams guessing on location. We executed a fake punt very well, with Cam (Werts) hitting Cohen for a first down. We also fielded their squib kickoffs very well to give ourselves decent field position.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kenton will enter Friday\u2019s game with a six game losing streak and while it\u2019s been a struggle, the Wildcats have given some teams fits, including Defiance in a 43-42 overtime loss. Last week, Kenton have St. Marys Memorial all they could handle before falling 35-26.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEarly on we dealt with a lot of injuries,\u201d Kenton head coach Zach Turner said. \u201cThrough the season we had 11 varsity starters of our original 22 impacted due to injuries. These past few weeks we have gotten much healthier, so looking at the past few weeks we have seen a lot of growth and improvement amongst our players.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Wildcats enter with the youngest team in the WBL, with a projected starting lineup of just one senior on offense and three on defense. The starting lineup on offense will likely include five sophomores and a pair of freshmen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKenton is a very young team but they have been very competitive this year,\u201d Recker said. The biggest concern is their offense.  They have averaged 28 points a game the last four weeks, their receivers have very good hands and run crisp routes, they have good athleticism at those positions, and their quarterback has exceptional timing on routes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The quarterback is one of two freshmen starting on offense – Xavier Gammon. In his debut against Ottawa-Glandorf in Week No. 3, he passed for just over 500 yards and three touchdowns and ran for nearly 100 yards. During last week\u2019s game against the Roughriders, he completed 30-of-45 passes for 360 yards, four touchdowns and one interception, and had 15 carries for 60 yards and another score. Despite not starting until Week No. 3, Gammon leads all WBL passers with just over 2,600 yards. He also tossed 15 touchdown passes and 11 interceptions and rushed for nearly 400 yards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cXavier is a great kid, he works hard and is a great leader for us,\u201d Turner said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kenton is second among all WBL schools in terms of total offense (386 yards per game), including 315 yards passing per outing, which is first among league schools. Van Wert is third in total offense (366 yards per game but has a much more balanced attack (253 passing, 153 rushing per game). On defense, both teams have struggled against the run and are No. 9-10 vs. the rush. Van Wert defensive lineman Nick Edwards leads the league with seven sacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVan Wert is a very good football team,\u201d Turner said. \u201cThey are extremely athletic and they do a great job of making plays. Our biggest concern is containing their playmakers. Offensively we have to protect our quarterback and do our best to not allow their defense to make plays.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year\u2019s game went right down to the final seconds. Van Wert rallied from a 38-17 fourth quarter deficit and won 45-44, then Xavier Kelly intercepted a Kenton pass at the 1-yard line in the closing seconds to preserve the win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with the season finale, the 2000 Van Wert football team will be recognized Friday night. The team grabbed the final playoff spot in Division III that saeson and went on an improbable playoff run all the way to the state championship game, where the Cougars finished as the state runner-up after falling in double overtime to Canton Central Catholic, 27-26.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have heard the stories about that run and how special it was from friends and colleagues in the community,\u201d said Recker, who was a junior at Delphos St. John\u2019s during that season. \u201cFrom thinking they weren’t going to make the playoffs initially after week 10, to not only making the playoffs but having some big upsets and making a run all the way to the state championship game, what a special run that was.  We discussed the 2000 team during our Monday team meeting and the pride they have for not only their accomplishments that season but for the program as a whole. They took great care of the program during their time and we have to continue what the players before us accomplished.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are excited to get the chance to honor them and play our best in front of them, continuing the long tradition of Cougar Pride,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday\u2019s Kenton at Van Wert game will air live on WERT 1220AM\/104.3FM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports With the playoffs seemingly out of reach, Van Wert has two goals this Friday night \u2013 send the seniors out with a win and play well in front of the school\u2019s 2000 state runner-up team. The Cougars (4-5, 3-5 WBL) will host Kenton in the regular season finale and in all likelihood, […]<\/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-198605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 21:42:07","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\/198605","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=198605"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":198624,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198605\/revisions\/198624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}