{"id":92963,"date":"2017-09-14T06:06:42","date_gmt":"2017-09-14T11:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=92963"},"modified":"2017-09-14T06:08:16","modified_gmt":"2017-09-14T11:08:16","slug":"cougars-set-to-clash-with-the-titans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2017\/09\/14\/cougars-set-to-clash-with-the-titans\/","title":{"rendered":"Cougars set to clash with the Titans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong><em>independent sports editor<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Another week, another big challenge in the Western Buckeye League.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the mindset of the Van Wert Cougars, heading into Friday\u2019s home game against the Ottawa-Glandorf Titans.<\/p>\n<p>The Cougars (2-1, 1-1 WBL) are coming off a 50-34 road loss to St. Mary\u2019s Memorial. The Roughriders led 28-7 at halftime, but Van Wert trimmed the lead to eight in the third quarter, before the two teams started trading scores.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_92965\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-92965\" style=\"width: 350px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-92965\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/DrewBagley9-14-17.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"487\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-92965\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Drew Bagley caught a touchdown pass against St. Marys. Jerry Mason for the VW independent<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI thought we showed some toughness coming out strong to start the second half after having a dismal first half,\u201d head coach Keith Recker said. \u201cTo cut the lead to eight, although it was just for a short time, showed that our players will continue to fight the entire game.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This week\u2019s matchup won\u2019t be much easier. Despite a 1-2 (1-1 WBL) record, Ottawa-Glandorf is ranked 16th in the state in Division V. After an 0-2 start to the season, the Titans defeated Bath 38-6 last Friday. Running back Daniel Beemer led the way with 27 carries for 236 yards and four touchdowns.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOttawa-Glandorf is so consistent and it starts with Coach (Ken) Shriner,\u201d Recker said. \u201cHe has them play a tough, physical brand of football where they seldom beat themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTheir offensive line will probably be the biggest we will face all year,\u201d Recker added.<\/p>\n<p>The Titans have had to deal with injuries at the quarterback position. Returning starter Jay Kaufman is out for the season with a knee injury, and Jason Siebeneck went down with an ankle injury in the first half of last week\u2019s game. Freshman quarterback Jacob Balbaugh came in and completed 3-of-6 passes for 42 yards and a touchdown.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of which quarterback starts for the Titans, Recker knows the Cougars will have their hands full.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOttawa-Glandorf presents their own challenges with their ability to both run and pass efficiently, especially with good playmakers running the ball and catching the ball, Recker explained. \u201cDefensively, this is the first time we&#8217;ve seen a three-man front, but we have been practicing against it all season so that should help adjusting to it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tomorrow\u2019s game at Eggerss Stadium will kick off at 7:00 p.m. It will be broadcast live on WERT 1220AM and 104.3FM, and will stream live at www.thevwindependent.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports editor Another week, another big challenge in the Western Buckeye League. That\u2019s the mindset of the Van Wert Cougars, heading into Friday\u2019s home game against the Ottawa-Glandorf Titans. The Cougars (2-1, 1-1 WBL) are coming off a 50-34 road loss to St. Mary\u2019s Memorial. The Roughriders led 28-7 at halftime, but Van [&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-92963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 15:16:18","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\/92963","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=92963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92963\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}