{"id":93548,"date":"2017-09-28T06:39:53","date_gmt":"2017-09-28T11:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=93548"},"modified":"2017-09-28T06:41:38","modified_gmt":"2017-09-28T11:41:38","slug":"midseason-report-van-wert-cougars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2017\/09\/28\/midseason-report-van-wert-cougars\/","title":{"rendered":"Midseason report: Van Wert Cougars"},"content":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent sports editor<\/i><\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt about it, the Van Wert Cougars have been fun to watch this season.<\/p>\n

At the halfway point of the regular season, Van Wert sits at 3-2 (2-2 Western Buckeye League). The Cougars opened the season with a pair of victories \u2013 27-7 over Bryan and 26-20 over Wapakoneta \u2013 before losing to the St. Marys Roughriders 50-34. A 19-17 win over Ottawa-Glandorf came after that, followed by last Friday\u2019s 35-27 loss at Shawnee.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been very pleased with our effort and our will to compete,\u201d head coach Keith Recker said. \u201cThere have been games where we have been up (Wapakoneta and Ottawa-Glandorf) and they’ve come back. Our guys refocused and fought their way to win. There have been games where we were down (St. Marys and Shawnee) and fought back to within a score during those games.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Nate Place has accounted for over 1,300 yards and 13 touchdowns.<\/strong> Jerry Mason photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After making some off-season changes, the Cougars are averaging 366 yards and 26.6 points per game. Those changes included moving Nate Place from wide receiver to quarterback, quarterback Storm Pierce to wide receiver, and running back Jacoby Kelly from running back to slot receiver.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose three have accepted their roles and have done exactly as we’ve asked,\u201d Recker said. \u201cNate and Jacoby have shown their ability to make big plays and keep us moving on offense while also showing toughness with how much they are on the field and the amount of times they have the ball. Storm has done a great job accepting his role and making big catches at different points this season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Place has completed 82-of-127 passes for 975 yards, eight touchdowns and four interceptions. He\u2019s also the team\u2019s leading rusher, with 97 carries for 367 yards and five touchdowns.<\/p>\n

As the starting running back ,James Acquaviva has 46 carries for 217 yards and five scores.<\/p>\n

Kelly is the team\u2019s leading receiver with 25 catches for 403 yards and four touchdowns. Drew Bagley has 22 receptions for 216 yards and a score, Pierce has 16 receptions for 133 yards and a touchdown, while Tanner Barnhart has pulled in 14 passes for 198 yards and two touchdowns.<\/p>\n

Some new faces have stepped up defensively, especially in the secondary. That unit has given up just 462 yards, or 92.4 yards per game. Overall, the Cougars are giving up 323 yards per contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have adjusted so much with our secondary this summer as far as scheme and technique, but that group has continually improved and have shown a good ability to not give up big plays, minus the Shawnee game,\u201d Recker explained. \u201cAden Stripe, Jalen McCracken, Parker Conrad, Jacoby Kelly, and Nate Place are the guys in our secondary.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCracken is the team\u2019s leading tackler with 49, followed by linebacker Kobe Palmer (44), Joey Schaufelberger (35), and Jake Hilleary (30).<\/p>\n

Bagley leads the team in sacks (five), and Kelly and Place have each intercepted two passes.<\/p>\n

The Cougars suffered a big loss during last week\u2019s loss to Shawnee, when OL\/LB Jordon Danylchuk sustained a knee injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, we are not planning on having him available for a while,\u201d Recker stated.<\/p>\n

Van Wert has five games left during the regular season \u2013 home games against Kenton, Bath and Celina, and road games against Elida and Defiance.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s Kenton game will serve as homecoming for the Cougars, and despite a 1-4 record, Recker believes the Wildcats will pose a challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cKenton is difficult because they are so good at what they do,\u201d Recker said. \u201cThey are very efficient with their passing game on offense, and on defense they are basic but can cause you problems with some movement on the defensive line.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we bring our best then we will have a great opportunity to get another win,\u201d Recker added.<\/p>\n

Van Wert and Kenton will air live on WERT 1220AM and 104.3FM, and will stream live at www.thevwindependent.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports editor There\u2019s no doubt about it, the Van Wert Cougars have been fun to watch this season. At the halfway point of the regular season, Van Wert sits at 3-2 (2-2 Western Buckeye League). The Cougars opened the season with a pair of victories \u2013 27-7 over Bryan and 26-20 over Wapakoneta […]<\/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-93548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-21 19:46:14","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\/93548","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=93548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93548\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}