{"id":210418,"date":"2026-09-22T20:24:54","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T01:24:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=210418"},"modified":"2026-09-22T20:24:56","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T01:24:56","slug":"cougars-to-face-surging-wapakoneta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/09\/22\/cougars-to-face-surging-wapakoneta\/","title":{"rendered":"Cougars to face surging Wapakoneta"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

The first half of the regular season is in the books and by and large for the Van Wert Cougars, it was a successful one. A 4-1 (3-1 WBL) start includes wins over Bryan, Elida, Bath and Defiance. The only loss came to undefeated Celina, a team that is ranked No. 3 in the state in Division III.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second half of the season appears to be loaded with different challenges, starting with the defending WBL champion Wapakoneta Redskins this Friday. After this week\u2019s road game, the Cougars will return to Eggerss Stadium for a homecoming game against St. Marys Memorial, then it\u2019s off to Ottawa-Glandorf to face a Titan team that\u2019s currently 5-0 (4-0 WBL), followed by a home game against Shawnee, then a trip to Kenton in the regular season finale. Those different teams and different styles of play appear to be a daunting task.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Xavier Kelly (11) gashed the Defiance defense for 291 yards and five touchdowns on just nine carries. Bob Barnes\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cWe have everything from the Wing-T offense to empty spread offense left on our schedule, and Wapak will do a bit of everything formationally,\u201d Van Wert head coach Keith Recker said. \u201cSo it is a challenge but we really focus on what we have coming each week and make sure we put ourselves in a great position to defend the run and not give up big plays. So each week we try to put the best plan together to do that, while not looking ahead and putting complete focus on how to best defend what Wapak does.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Redskins will enter Friday\u2019s game with an uncharacteristic 2-3 (2-1 WBL) record but closer examination shows the three losses came to teams with a combined 15-0 record (Oregon Clay, Celina and Ottawa-Glandorf). The wins have come against Defiance and St. Marys Memorial, a game Wapak won last Friday 49-21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Wapakoneta lost a lot of talent to graduation, it appears the Redskins are finding their footing at the midway point of the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur guys have played with great effort and have been very resilient throughout the first half of the season,\u201d Wapakoneta head coach Travis Moyer said. \u201cWe have started to become a more consistent football team which has led to better execution in all three phases of the game. We will need to continue to demonstrate great work ethic during practice to continue to improve as a football team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey are very sound with their responsibilities and assignments on defense, which makes execution for us very important on offense,\u201d Recker said. \u201cThey attack the run very well and are solid in the secondary.  Offensively they can do so much with formations and motions to make defending all of it very difficult.  We have to be completely focused on our reads and adjustments to motions and formations to put ourselves in a good position, and once the ball is snapped we have to have relentless effort in block destruction and tackling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

One of Van Wert\u2019s strengths this season has been on defense. While the Cougars have given up yards here and there, the defense has been able to rise to the occasion multiple times, allowing opposing teams to convert just 36 percent of third and fourth down conversions combined. Along with that, teams have only been able to average a modest 131 yards per game against Van Wert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have been very pleased with our ability to stop the run,\u201d Recker said. \u201cI think our run fits have been good with our front six and our safeties have done a very good job making reads and knowing when to attack the run and when to stay back. We need to continue to work on defending the quarterback scramble and defending the run will be very important for us this week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xavier Kelly has dazzled so far this season, with 74 carries for 693 yards and 15 touchdowns, including nine carries for 291 yards and five touchdowns against Defiance. He\u2019s added 21 receptions for 313 yards and four more touchdowns and he has a touchdown via punt return, giving him a WBL-high 20 touchdowns after five games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Kelly lines up in the backfield much of the time, he has split out wide and has been part of a productive group of receivers. Keaten Welch, Micah Cowan, Easton Putman and Cohen Bragg have combined for 77 receptions for 973 yards and six touchdowns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur receiver group as a whole have done a good job executing their responsibilities,\u201d Recker said. \u201cThey block when needed, they catch five yard routes for first downs when necessary and they make big plays when it is their opportunity. All four receivers bring something slightly different but very important to our offense (quarterback) Zach (Crummey) has great trust that they will make the play when needed.  They will do whatever is best for our offense to move the ball and are excited for each other when they make plays.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crummey had completed 97-of-149 passes (65.1 percent) for 1,254 yards, 10 touchdowns and two interceptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOffensively, Van Wert has the ability to stretch you both vertically and horizontally with their play concepts and athletes,\u201d Moyer said. \u201cThey have big ability and are able to score from anywhere on the field. Defensively,  Van Wert is an even front defense and the ability to bring pressure.  They’re physical upfront and athletic on the back end.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As has been the case for many opposing teams, winning at Mercy Health\/Wapak Ford Field at Harmon Stadium has been difficult. Van Wert has won there just twice since the turn of the century \u2013 a 20-14 overtime win in 2004, and a 34-0 victory during the 2020 state championship season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports The first half of the regular season is in the books and by and large for the Van Wert Cougars, it was a successful one. A 4-1 (3-1 WBL) start includes wins over Bryan, Elida, Bath and Defiance. The only loss came to undefeated Celina, a team that is ranked No. 3 […]<\/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-210418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-04 01:26:06","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\/210418","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=210418"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210420,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210418\/revisions\/210420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}