{"id":81070,"date":"2016-10-21T08:31:35","date_gmt":"2016-10-21T13:31:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=81070"},"modified":"2016-10-21T13:03:27","modified_gmt":"2016-10-21T18:03:27","slug":"cougars-get-last-chance-for-2016-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2016\/10\/21\/cougars-get-last-chance-for-2016-victory\/","title":{"rendered":"Cougars get last chance for home victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Two teams that have struggled this season will meet tonight at Eggerss Stadium.<\/p>\n

Van Wert (0-8, 0-7 WBL) will host the Defiance Bulldogs (1-7, 1-6 WBL) in the 2016 home finale for the Cougars, and 11 seniors on the team.<\/p>\n

\"Van
Van Wert’s Nick Gutierrez (12) finds some running room against Shawnee earlier this season.<\/strong>\u00a0VW independent file photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Those seniors are WR\/DB Nick Gutierrez, RB\/LB Brandon Calvelage, RB\/LB Evan Williams, RB\/LB Nathan Murphy, WR\/DL Matt Reichert, OL\/DL Jordan Chacon, OL\/DL Marcus Valle, OL\/DL Marcel Salcido, OL\/DL Brock Berry, WR\/LB Brady Place and OL\/DL Cole Buckner.\u00a0 Place and Buckner are out with injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love this group of guys because of their commitment to Van Wert football,\u201d head coach Keith Recker said. \u201cFootball is a tough sport mentally and physically, and not something that every person in the school is willing to give the effort and commitment it takes to have a chance to compete each week.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have 11 men who have done everything we’ve asked of them and I am forever grateful to them for their commitment to our program,\u201d Recker added.<\/p>\n

It appears Storm Pierce will start at quarterback against Defiance. A sprained ankle forced Pierce to miss last week\u2019s 43-12 loss to Celina, and most of a Week 7 loss to Lima Bath.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are planning on going with Storm at quarterback with Nate (Place) as his backup, and playing wide receiver,\u201d Recker said. \u201cHis ankle is still a concern so we will be cautious with him, but we\u2019re thinking he’ll be able to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defiance is coming off a grueling three-game stretch, with losses to three state-ranked teams\u2013-Ottawa-Glandorf, Wapakoneta and St. Marys Memorial. The Bulldogs were outscored 124-6 in those games.<\/p>\n

Even so, Recker knows Defiance will present some challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir quarterback and running back are very fast and agile, and we are going to need great pursuit to get as many bodies to those guys when they have the ball as possible,\u201d Recker said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefensively, they stunt their line a lot and will bring blitzes with multiple LB’s, which can cause our offensive line problems,\u201d Recker added. \u201cHowever, if we block our zone plays correctly, there should be some gaps for us to hit.<\/p>\n

Tonight\u2019s game begins at 7 and will air live on WERT 1220AM and stream live at www.thevwindependent.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports Two teams that have struggled this season will meet tonight at Eggerss Stadium. Van Wert (0-8, 0-7 WBL) will host the Defiance Bulldogs (1-7, 1-6 WBL) in the 2016 home finale for the Cougars, and 11 seniors on the team. Those seniors are WR\/DB Nick Gutierrez, RB\/LB Brandon Calvelage, RB\/LB Evan Williams, […]<\/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-81070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 01:34:16","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\/81070","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=81070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81070\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}