{"id":94729,"date":"2017-10-28T07:17:24","date_gmt":"2017-10-28T12:17:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=94729"},"modified":"2017-10-28T07:17:24","modified_gmt":"2017-10-28T12:17:24","slug":"cougars-win-season-finale-to-finish-500","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2017\/10\/28\/cougars-win-season-finale-to-finish-500\/","title":{"rendered":"Cougars win season finale to finish .500"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

DEFIANCE — Jacoby Kelly put on quite a show in his final football game for Van Wert. The senior speedster scored three touchdowns \u2013 one via the pass, one on the ground and one on a punt return \u2013 to spark the Cougars to a 48-7 win over Defiance on Friday.<\/p>\n

Van Wert finished the season 5-5 (4-5 Western Buckeye League), while the Bulldogs closed at 1-9 (1-8 WBL).<\/p>\n

\"\"
Jacoby Kelly scored three touchdowns against Defiance.<\/strong> Jerry Mason\/file photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI thought we showed a lot of pride and maturity to win this game in the manner we did,\u201d Van Wert head coach Keith Recker said. \u201cOur guys had a great week of practice, not always easy to do in Week No. 10, and played exactly like we expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite cold, windy and wet conditions, the Cougars seized control of the game early. After forcing a quick Defiance punt, Van Wert\u2019s offense went to work, marching 79 yards in seven plays, ending the drive with a 23-yard touchdown pass from Jake Hilleary to Drew Bagley.\u00a0 Jake Lautzenheiser added the first of his six PATs, and the Cougars led 7-0 with 7:24 remaining in the opening quarter.<\/p>\n

After another Defiance punt, the Cougars moved quickly downfield and scored on a 47 yard pass from Hilleary to Jacoby Kelly to increase the lead to 14-0 with 3:53 left in the quarter.<\/p>\n

The Cougars threatened again early in the second quarter. Hilleary hit Bagley for 48 yards and a series of runs pushed the ball to the Defiance seven yard line, but a fumble ended the drive. However, Van Wert\u2019s defense rose up again and forced a three and out, and the Cougars took over at their own 33. Kelly raced for 27 yards on first down, and three plays later caught a 30 yard pass. James Acquaviva ended the drive with a six yard touchdown run.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs lost 23 yards on their next drive, and John Weisgerber\u2019s punt was fielded by Kelly and taken back 58 yards for a touchdown, and a 28-0 Van Wert lead with four minutes remaining until halftime.<\/p>\n

Kelly scored his third touchdown of the game at the 10:49 mark of the second quarter, when he took a direct snap from Daniel Magowan and sprinted 58 yards for a touchdown and a 35-0 lead, which started a continuous clock.<\/p>\n

Hilleary scored on a 16-yard keeper with 3:50 left in the third quarter, then the Bulldogs got on the board when JD McNett plunged in from a yard out with 10:38 left in the game. McNett rushed for 106 yards, and went over 1,000 yards rushing for the season.<\/p>\n

The game\u2019s final touchdown came with six minutes left, when Rodney Calvelage scored from the one yard line.<\/p>\n

Hilleary, who started his second straight game at quarterback (Nate Place, illness) finished the game 6-of-7 for 170 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. He also had 93 yards rushing and a touchdown on 16 carries.<\/p>\n

Bagley caught three of Hilleary\u2019s passes for 84 yards, while Kelly had three receptions for 86 yards and a touchdown, four carries for 96 yards and a score, plus the punt return for a touchdown. Kelly would have had a fourth touchdown, but an 88-yard kickoff return was called back on a penalty.<\/p>\n

The Cougars finished with 438 yards of offense, while holding Defiance to 161 yards, all on the ground. Sophomore quarterback Caden Kline was 0-1 passing, and was sacked three times.<\/p>\n

\u201cA common theme during during our senior talks this week was to have no regrets,\u201d Recker said. \u201cI\u2019m very happy for them to go out on a high note and happy for our underclassmen to have confidence as we head into the off-season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scoring summary:<\/p>\n

7:24 1st qtr: Jake Hilleary 16 yard pass to Drew Bagley (Jake Lautzenheiser kick)
\n3:53 1st qtr: Jake Hilleary 47 yard pass to Jacoby Kelly (Jake Lautzenheiser kick)
\n6:20 2nd qtr: James Acquaviva 6 yard run (Jake Lautzenheiser kick)
\n4:00 2nd qtr: Jacoby Kelly 58 yard punt return (Jake Lautzenheiser kick)
\n10:49 3rd qtr: Jacoby Kelly 58 yard run (Jake Lautzenheiser kick)
\n3:50 3rd qtr: Jake Hilleary 9 yard run (Jake Lautzenheiser kick)
\n10:38 4th qtr: JD McNett 1 yard run (John Weisgerber kick)
\n6:00 4th qtr: Rodney Calvelage 1 yard run (kick no good)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports editor DEFIANCE — Jacoby Kelly put on quite a show in his final football game for Van Wert. The senior speedster scored three touchdowns \u2013 one via the pass, one on the ground and one on a punt return \u2013 to spark the Cougars to a 48-7 win over Defiance on Friday. […]<\/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-94729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 09:37:23","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\/94729","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=94729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94729\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}