{"id":92503,"date":"2017-08-31T07:36:30","date_gmt":"2017-08-31T12:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=92503"},"modified":"2017-08-31T07:36:30","modified_gmt":"2017-08-31T12:36:30","slug":"cougars-ready-for-wbl-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2017\/08\/31\/cougars-ready-for-wbl-opener\/","title":{"rendered":"Cougars ready for WBL opener"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong><em>independent sports editor<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The second week of the high school football season will bring a different set of challenges for the Van Wert Cougars.<\/p>\n<p>Defending Western Buckeye League tri-champion Wapakoneta (0-1) will visit Eggerss Stadium, in the WBL opener for both teams. It\u2019s also the home opener for Van Wert (1-0).<\/p>\n<p>The Cougars snapped an 11-game losing streak, with last Friday\u2019s 27-7 win over the Bryan Golden Bears. Nate Place threw for 127 yards and a touchdown, and rushed for 61 yards. Jacoby Kelly finished with 162 all purpose yards, including an 80-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-11411\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Cougar-head-logo.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"168\" height=\"147\" \/>While reviewing film of the victory, head coach Keith Recker and his staff saw some positives and some areas that need improvement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe biggest positive was our coverage on defense,\u201d Recker said. \u201cWe had coverage issues in our scrimmages and it made us concerned, but our defensive backs played very sound and did a good job of not giving up any big plays through the air.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur offensive line still needs to continue to improve,\u201d Recker added. \u201cTechnique and assignment were not where they need to be for when we play Wapakoneta. We had too many missed assignments that will really hurt us if we don&#8217;t get that fixed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite a 19-7 season opening loss to Bellefontaine, Recker believes Wapakoneta is a solid team.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no one specific player that stands out as being head and shoulders above others, but they have good players at every position,\u201d Recker said. \u201cThey are very sound defensively and really get to the ball well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOffensively they present challenges because they are so multiple in their formations with the same personnel. They can go from a Wing-T team to a spread team without changing personnel, which makes it a little difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Recker added the key to victory is as much mental as it is physical.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have to believe that we can beat them,\u201d Recker explained, \u201cNext, we have to be better up front so we can control the ball on offense, and we must cut down on our penalties.<\/p>\n<p>Tomorrow\u2019s game will air live on WERT 1220 AM and 104.3 FM, and will stream live at <a href=\"http:\/\/thevwindependent..om\">www.thevwindependent.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports editor The second week of the high school football season will bring a different set of challenges for the Van Wert Cougars. Defending Western Buckeye League tri-champion Wapakoneta (0-1) will visit Eggerss Stadium, in the WBL opener for both teams. It\u2019s also the home opener for Van Wert (1-0). The Cougars snapped [&hellip;]<\/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-92503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 04:28:36","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\/92503","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=92503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92503\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}