By Grant Pepper
Tonight, the Ada Bulldog football team will make their 11th OHSAA playoff appearance in 12 years, as they will face Findlay Liberty-Benton in the first round.
Ada (7-3) snuck into the playoffs with a win over Allen East last week and a little bit of luck (you can read Cort Reynolds’ explanation of their unconventional path to the playoffs here), earning the 8-seed in Division 6 Region 22. They will face a Liberty-Benton squad tonight that went 9-1 in the regular season and is the top seed in the region.
Liberty-Benton has won seven straight games, including a 26-0 dusting of rival McComb last week that granted the Eagles a share of the Blanchard Valley Conference title. They score an average of 40 points per game on offense, while giving up less than 10 points per game on defense.
Ada should have their hands full tonight against a Liberty-Benton team that is ranked fifth in the Division 6 AP state poll and features the BVC Offensive Player of the Year -- senior quarterback Austin May -- and Defensive Player of the Year -- senior linebacker A.J. Dobbins.
I talked to Ada head coach Bob Olwin, as well as two local radio analysts (Lance Morris of WBVI in Fostoria and John Marshall of WFIN in Findlay) who cover Liberty-Benton football for my weekly sports talk show on WONB, The Pep Talk, to preview tonight’s first round matchup between the Bulldogs and the Eagles.
We talked about how Ada got into the playoffs, what has made Liberty-Benton so dominant this season, and what the Bulldogs will have to do to pull off the upset tonight.
To listen to this week’s show, click here:
https://soundcloud.com/grantpepper/the-pep-talk-11-3-2017-ada-football-p...
And if you want to listen to WONB’s call of Ada’s game tonight against Liberty-Benton, tune in to 94.9 FM or listen online at wonb.net. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m., with our pregame coverage starting at 7.
Follow Grant Pepper on Twitter: @GrantPepper
Follow SportsBeat 94.9 FM on Twitter: @SportsBeat949FM
