Leipsic’s Jayce Brecht fights for yardage against Spencerville’s Dylan Short and Grady Smith during Friday night’s game at Spencerville.
Don Speck | The Lima News
SPENCERVILLE — Leipsic continued its best start since 2019 after handling Spencerville in conference play.
The Vikings are wrapping up their third and final season in the Northwest Conference before returning to the Blanchard Valley Conference. The Vikings are focused on collecting a league title before their exit.
Leipsic was led Friday night by senior Quin Schroeder, Schroeder found the end zone twice, recovered a fumble, and picked off Carder Orr in the Vikings 40-6 victory. The week six win moved Leipsic to 6-0 overall and 3-0 in the NWC to set up a battle of conference unbeatens next week as Leipsic plays host to Columbus Grove.
“That has been Quins’ thing all year, he’s embraced the running back position.” Leipsic head coach Joe Kirkendall said. “When he has the ball in his hand, we like to say he is our Debo Samual and he kind of plays like that and he is probably one of the best defensive backs you are going to find around.”
Spencerville welcomed back a plethora of starters to its lineup after having to plug and place the last two weeks. The Bearcats entered play Friday night searching for their first points since week three and seemed poised to find the end zone on their opening possession.
The Cats took over six minutes off the clock on the opening drive, the ground game returned to form as Nathan Coulter and Carter Layman returned. The duo worked Spencerville into the red zone, but Layman had the ball popped out and Quin Schroeder recovered to keep the Cats off the scoreboard.
“That opening drive was about as good as it can get.” Spencerville head coach Kyle Koenig said. “The self-inflicting wounds killed us tonight. We wanted to keep the ball out of their hands, and we were able to take six minutes off the clock, it would have been huge for us to punch it in but unfortunately, we didn’t, and they got the ball and scored quick.”
Quick was exactly how the Leipsic offense worked. The Vikings possessed the ball four times in the first half, ran a dozen plays and found the end zone four times. It took Leipsic four plays on their opening drive for Quin Schroeder to find a hole and sprint 67 yards for the score.
On the next Leipsic drive it was Schroeder striking again, this time from six yards out. Schroeder was unable to capitalize on the extra point try, Leipsic led 13-0 late in the first.
Spencerville continued to be able to move the ball against the Vikings stingy defense until Quin Schroeder found the ball once again. Quin picked off Spencerville’s Carder Orr at the two-yard line to keep the shutout attempt alive once again.
“My line did a tremendous job on both of my touchdown runs tonight, I had huge holes and I got into space and got into the end zone.” Quin Schroeder said.
“When our defense works against a short field, we definitely become more aggressive.” Kirkendall had to say. “Spencerville took it to us tonight, the first four weeks of the season we played good defense and the last two weeks teams have been able to run over us. But when we get down to those goal line situations our guys have done a great job making negative plays and getting offenses behind the sticks.”
The second quarter belonged to Trent Siefker. The Vikings senior found pay dirt twice, once on the ground from 31 yards out, and again in the air when he reeled in junior Tyler Lammers’ 20-yard pass on fourth down. At halftime the Vikings led 27-0.
“Trent (Siefker) may be one of the most polished receivers that we have ever had. In the summer he was timed at a 4.49 electronically in the 40-yard dash, so he is the fastest guy on the field and a technician as a route runner which has been huge for us.” Kirkendall said.
Leipsic took the opening drive of the second half down the field and found the end zone for a fifth time and engaged the running clock. Siefker nearly found the end zone once again but was tackled at the goal line after he caught Lammers’ 31-yard pass. Senior Estevan Carrillo finished the drive with the score.
With time running out and the Bearcats in danger of being shut out for a third consecutive week Carder Orr put his team on his back and worked his squad down the field mid fourth quarter. Orr put Spencerville on the board with a 15-yard touchdown run.
Kyle Koenig said. “I just wanted to get the first team in the end zone again, at that point it had been 12 quarters since we had scored, and it was a good confidence boost for the guys heading into next week.”
With week six now in the rear-view mirror the Vikings can turn their attention to next week. A marquee matchup against their county rival, Columbus Grove. Both the Bulldogs and Vikings enter the matchup unblemished in Northwest Conference play.
“Huge game next week. We have been playing Grove since before we came to the league, it’s a rivalry game and they have got us the last two years.” Kirkendall said. “It is going to be a very physical game where everybody knows everybody, and everything that you want to matter matters.”
Spencerville will travel to Allen East next Friday night.
Game summary
Score by quarters:
Leipsic 13 14 7 6 – 40
Spencerville 0 0 0 6 – 6
Scoring.
L – 67 yard run Quin Schroeder (Schroeder kick)
L – 6 yard run Quin Schroeder (kick failed)
L – 31 yard run Trent Siefker (Schroeder kick)
L – 20 yard pass to Trent Siefker from Tyler Lammers (Schroeder kick)
L – 1 yard run Estevan Carrillo (Schroeder kick)
S – 15 yard run Carder Orr (kick failed)
L – 42 yard run Carter Benton (Tyler Walther kick)
Leipsic Spencerville
12 First downs 12
382 Total yardage 215
249 Rushing yardage 153
133 Passing yardage 62
6/8/0 Passing (Com-Att-Int) 6-12-1
0-0 Fumbles-Lost 2-2
0-0 Punts-Average 2-30.5
3-25 Penalties-Yards 3-15
Individual leaders:
Passing: Leipsic – Tyler Lammers 6-8-133; Spencerville– Carder Orr 6-12-62.
Rushing: Leipsic – Quin Schroeder 5-93 ; Spencerville – Nate Coulter 18-56.
Receiving: Leipsic – Jayce Brecht 3-62; Spencerville – Will Sensabaugh 3-33.
