Spencerville’s Grady Smith runs the ball against Delphos Jefferson on Thursday night at Stadium Park.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
DELPHOS — This year’s rendition of the Battle of Route 66 rivalry kicked off Week 10 of the high school football season at Stadium Park on Thursday evening.
After playing to an early 7-7 tie, Spencerville (5-5, 2-5 Northwest Conference) rattled off 47 unanswered points and limited Delphos Jefferson (1-9, 0-7 Northwest Conference) to negative yards in the second half en route to a 54-7 victory.
“All week we put an emphasis on getting a better start and our guys did just that tonight,” Spencerville coach Kyle Koenig said. “Before the game, we talked about how last year’s loss left a bad taste in our mouth and our guys responded to that.”
The visiting Bearcats methodically moved the ball down the field on their opening possession. Zach Looser capped off a 12-play, 79-yard drive that spanned six minutes with his sixth rushing touchdown of the season.
It took less than 90 seconds for Jefferson to level the score late in the first quarter when Luke Rode scampered into the end zone on a five-yard keeper before he left with an injury later in the first half, forcing Jefferson to readjust its offense.
As time wound down in the opening quarter, Grady Smith was inches away from adding another Spencerville score but Jefferson poked the ball loose and forced a touchback.
That was the only mistake the Bearcats made on Thursday night.
On the ensuing possession for Spencerville, it took the Bearcats two plays to go in front for good. Smith made up for the possession prior when he reeled in a 63-yard touchdown pass from Carder Orr.
Koenig said, “Grady did a great job responding tonight. He surely made up for his mistakes when he had the opportunity. He’s a good example of what our entire team is. He keeps his head up when times are tough and puts in the work.”
With Rode out, Jefferson turned to a wildcat-style offense operated by running back Dean Trentman. Trentman, who didn’t play last week due to an injury, was able to muster 77 yards on 16 attempts behind center.
Andrew Cooley also took snaps out of the shotgun formation. His first pass of the contest landed in the hands of Spencerville’s Dylan Short. It was the first of three takeaways from the Bearcat defense.
Gavin Schwartz recovered a Jefferson fumble and Braylen Roeder hauled in his first career interception.
“When they went with the wildcat late in the second half, we were trying to figure it out as we went along,” Koenig said. “Our guys did a great job of keeping everything in front of them and not letting the big plays happen. Once we got to halftime we were able to make adjustments.
“It was fun to watch tonight. We wanted to get pressure on the quarterback and when we did that we came up with big plays, and our offense capitalized on the good field position.”
Spencerville’s defense was rewarded for each of its takeaways.
Will Sensabaugh had touchdown runs of six and eight yards before Carder Orr threw his second touchdown pass of the night from 35 yards out.
“I was really happy to see Carder (Orr) make some throws tonight,” Koenig said. “He really controlled the offense well and made the right reads at the line of scrimmage. He made the most of his rivalry matchup.
“Will (Sensabaugh) just keeps getting better and better each week. Even going back to last year we saw major improvements and now you can see him become more comfortable in the backfield.”
Spencerville held a 34-7 lead at the break and limited Jefferson to -9 total yards in the second half.
The Bearcats found the end zone twice in the third quarter. Grady Smith and Zach Looser each snuck into the endzone for a pair of one-yard touchdown runs.
Score by quarters
Spencerville 7 27 14 7 – 54
Delphos Jefferson 7 0 0 0 – 7
Scoring Summary
(SV) 2-yard TD run Zach Looser (Carder Orr EXT PT Good)
(DJ) 5-yard TD run Luke Rode (Braxton Hurles EXT PT Good)
(SV) 63-yard TD Pass Carder Orr to Grady Smith (Carder Orr EXT PT Good)
(SV) 6-yard TD run Will Sensabaugh (Carder Orr EXT PT No Good)
(SV) 8-yard TD run Will Sensabaugh (Carder Orr EXT PT Good)
(SV) 35-yard TD pass Carder Orr to Will Sensabaugh (Carder Orr EXT PT Good)
(SV) 1-yard TD run Grady Smith (Carder Orr EXT PT Good)
(SV) 1-yard TD run Zach Looser (Carder Orr EXT PT Good)
(SV) 10-yard fumble return Chandler Bassitt (Carder Orr EXT PT Good)
Nate Stidham wrote this story for LimaScores.com
