By Cort Reynolds
ADA - After spending 80 percent of its season on the road so far, Ada
celebrates Homecoming to kick off the second half against struggling but
dangerous Northwest Conference rival Columbus Grove.
Ada (3-2, 1-1 NWC) posted a 3-1 road record in the first half, thus down
the stretch the Bulldogs will host four of their final five regular season
games at War Memorial Stadium.
When asked whether being back home will help give his team a boost, head
coach Bob Olwin said, "I hope so. It is the last ride for our 13 seniors."
The purple and gold lost their lone home game so far in week three to LCC,
41-21.
After racing to a 10-0 lead, Ada suffered a tough 21-17 defeat at league
foe Spencerville last week. Meanwhile, Grove (1-4, 1-1 NWC) lost at
undefeated Crestview last Friday by a 36-13 count after leading 13-7 late
in the first quarter.
CG freshman quarterback Blake Reynolds threw touchdown passes of 43 and
three yards to give upset-minded Grove the lead. But then Crestview (5-0,
2-0 NWC) scored the game's last 29 points to methodically pull away.
"Grove's non-league games have been pretty tough," Olwin noted.
CG lost its first three games by a total score of 83-45 to teams sporting
a combined record of 11-4. They then shut out 1-4 Paulding 35-0 in the
week four NWC opener.
"Grove is young but they play hard the whole game," Olwin offered. "They
have a pretty good young freshman quarterback. They run the same offense
they always do, and they will throw it up. They have a couple good
receivers.
"Defensively they get after you up front," he continued. "They have two or
three good secondary guys, and their linebackers are pretty good. They
play real hard. They will blitz more than we have been seeing, sometimes
their cornerbacks will blitz. They just get after it."
Ada is seventh in the latest Div. VI, Region 22 computer rankings, while
Grove is rated 21st out of 28 teams.
"We're going to have to execute and step our game up on offense,"
predicted Olwin, whose teams are 30-20 in his fifth season at Ada. "On
defense, we have to cover and tackle well.
"They have good size and come after you," he added. "Their defensive line
is big, and they are coached well. We are not going to fool them a whole
bunch, so we will have to execute on offense. On defense, we need to be
disciplined with our assignments.
"Our backs are against the wall now," he warned of the Bulldog NWC title
chances. "We probably had our best practice of the season Monday.
Hopefully we keep it up into the game Friday, play with urgency and then
continue on from there."
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Friday, preceded by the Homecoming activities.
