By Cort Reynolds
Ada travels to Spencerville next Friday in a week five road battle between 1-0 Northwest Conference foes coming off nailbiting wins.
The Bulldogs held off a 26-point second half rally at Delphos Jefferson to beat the defending NWC champions 35-33 in week four. Spencerville (2-2) won a thriller at Allen East in their league opener last Friday in overtime, 27-20.
Friday will mark the fourth road game out of the first five for the road warrior Bulldogs this season. Ada is 3-0 away from War Memorial Stadium so far, outscoring its opposition 109-60 in those three victories. Four of their last five, including the final three games, will be at home.
"They have a lot of athletes," said Bulldog fifth-year head coach Bob Olwin of the Bearcats, who finished 6-1 and second in the NWC the past two years after losing to arch-rival Delphos Jefferson in week 10 showdowns for the league title.
"Spencerville got a big win at Allen East; both teams played very hard," he noted. "They are big up front, very physical and running back (Chris) Picker is as good as anyone in the league. Their other backs are fast, and they are monsters up front."
Against their only common opponent, both Ada and Spencerville were beaten by similar scores. The Bearcats lost at LCC 36-21 in week one while the Bulldogs fell to LCC 41-21 in week three at War Memorial. "They looked pretty good against LCC," noted Olwin of the Bearcats.
"Spencerville's backs run extremely hard, and their line gets off the ball. They also have the leading punter in the NWC. They have had two kids start at quarterback (one being Daniel Corso), and they don't throw much. They run a lot of the same things we saw at Delphos."
Olwin noted that even though the Bearcats have a new head coach in former Delphos Jeff head man Chris Sommers, he and the team still employ the same modus operandi of running the ball well and playing physical. "They have four to five real good backs who get to the corner quick."
Olwin agreed that one can expect the Bearcats to try and eat clock with a possession ground game to control the football and attempt to keep the explosive Ada offense off the field - and its defense on the field, where several starters go both ways.
"They are pretty young with only seven seniors, " said Olwin. "You can tell they are still trying to learn the verbiage (new) coach Sommers is using.
"On defense, they have a very aggressive front four and linebackers, their defensive backs have some speed but are smallish and they have used a lot of DBs. They have some quickness and are very aggressive. They send a few rushers if you drop back to pass, and send two linebackers if you sprint out to throw."
Ada lost to the Bearcats 22-19 last year at home in a thriller. The Bulldogs rallied from 14-0 down to lead late behind 19 unanswered second half points, yet Picker capped an 80-yard drive on a short TD run with a minute left to put Spencerville back on top.
The Bulldogs drove to the Bearcat 28 with three seconds left to play, but a last-ditch pass was intercepted in the end zone by Cody Dickson to preserve the win.
On their most recent trip to Spencerville in 2015, the Bulldogs fell 35-7. Ada last beat the Bearcats in 2013 by a 39-21 count.
"We still have a lot of improving to do in a lot of areas," said Olwin. "We need to be able to play well and focus for four quarters, not just two. A lot of good things can happen if we put four quarters together.
"This is a big week for us," he added. State-ranked Crestview, at 4-0 and 1-0 in the NWC, is the lone undefeated conference team remaining.
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Friday.
