Columbus Grove’s Trenton Barraza runs against Spencerville’s Will Sensabaugh, left, and Dylan Short during Friday’s game at Memorial Field in Spencerville.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
SPENCERVILLE — Columbus Grove began its defense of the Northwest Conference championship in style on Friday night with a 45-7 win over Spencerville.
Both teams entered conference play unbeaten in their first three games and Columbus Grove proved superior to Spencerville despite playing without starting quarterback Landon Best.
“We didn’t talk about Spencerville much this week until Thursday,” Columbus Grove coach Andy Schafer said. “The message this week was all about us and how we form a new identity without Landon Best. I don’t want to talk about stuff like that, but the reality is you must when you have an injury as big as his was.
“We were also down a big piece on defense tonight in Jamesen Rader, and we hope to have him back this week. It’s tough when you lose two engineers and leaders on the team. We really had to put the focus on us this week and the importance of having confidence.”
Riley Sautter stepped in under center for Best against Spencerville. The senior, who normally plays wide receiver, finished the game 8 of 12 for 186 yards and three touchdowns.
“Our focus tonight was to make sure that teams understand we’re still Columbus Grove,” Schafer said. “We put a lot of pressure on Riley, more than we needed to. We threw a couple of plays at him that we didn’t practice just to see how he would react, and he did an excellent job making in-game adjustments.
“We’re going to find out what kind of leader he is. He needed to be a big part of our offense, and I couldn’t be prouder of him tonight.”
It took less than six minutes for the visiting Bulldogs to spoil Spencerville’s senior night.
Two plays into Sautter’s first start, he hooked up with sophomore tight end Brady Basinger on a 35-yard touchdown.
Columbus Grove stayed true to its aggressive approach when Evan Sautter executed a perfect onside kick.
When the Bulldogs got the ball back, Trenton Barazza kick-started his three-touchdown performance with a five-yard run to cap off the ensuing drive.
Schafer demanded a fast-paced start from the Bulldogs and they responded on both sides of the ball.
Kylan Mayes fell on top of a fumble, giving Columbus Grove possession inside Spencerville’s 39-yard line, which resulted in a 25-yard field goal from Evan Verhoff.
With 6:09 left in the first quarter, Verhoff’s field goal made it 17-0.
“I told the team before we left the school that we were kicking an onside kick as soon we score tonight,” Schafer said. “I didn’t care what the situation was or what it looked like on tape, it was all about us. We wanted to set the peddle to the metal in the first half.”
Spencerville moved the ball against Columbus Grove’s defense with 224 total yards. They also limited turnovers and penalties but the state-ranked Bulldogs were simply too much to handle.
Carder Orr’s 51-yard touchdown run was Spencerville’s lone score of the game. It was his third of the season.
“Columbus Grove was really good up front and athletic on the outside. They were able to gash us for big plays,” said Spencerville coach Kyle Koenig.
“We knew if we wanted to be successful tonight we had to limit big plays. Barazza is a full load and he was able to run all over us. We must do a better job next week at making tackles. We hadn’t seen much on film about their quarterback, but he (Riley Sautter) stepped in and did a tremendous job.”
Columbus Grove executed three touchdown drives in the second quarter.
Sautter connected with Trevon Baxter for a 44-yard touchdown pass before finding Kyle Hopkins from 35 yards out. Trenton Barazza made it 45-7 on a 25-yard run.
“It’s a different feeling right now,” Schafer said after the win. “I don’t want to say that we’re confident, but we’re playing at our standard right now. We’re expecting to win. Our community is expecting it, and our coaches expect it.”
Columbus Grove (4-0, 1-0 NWC) looks for its 14th consecutive NWC victory on Friday night at home against Delphos Jefferson. Spencerville (3-1, 0-1 NWC) travels to Harmon Field to visit the Bluffton Pirates.
Nate Stidham wrote this story for LimaScores.com
