Spencerville’s Wesley Mack tackles Delphos Jefferson’s Trent Teman during Thursday night’s game at Stadium Park. See more high school football photos at LimaScores.com.
DELPHOS — Delphos Jefferson gave a performance that coaches dream of as the Wildcats scored in all three phases of the game to record a 49-13 victory against Spencerville in a Northwest Conference clash Thursday night.
With the win, Jefferson improves to 6-4 and 5-2 in the NWC. Not only does the win solidify the Wildcats’ playoff spot but it gives the team its first winning season since 2017. Spencerville ends its year with an 0-7 mark in the NWC and 1-9 mark for the year.
The Wildcats have won six of their last seven games.
“I am very proud of our senior class,” Delphos head coach Ben Rahrig said. “The last four years a lot of these guys had to play as freshmen and we took it from Spencerville last year and this is your turn and they made the most of their opportunity.
“What is great is we are seeing that the guys are getting it. We were so close so many times in the past ,,, and they figured out how to win and once you figure out how to win it is a heck of a lot easier.”
Of the touchdowns, two came from the offense, two from the defense and three from the special teams.
“The special teams were the main story tonight,” Delphos head coach Ben Rahrig said. “We scored on a block field goal, a blocked punt and excellent special defense tonight and the defense played well tonight.”
Rahrig pointed out that the offense ran only 18 plays all game.
“We got stops when we needed to (on defense) and that is what we preach,” Rahrig said. “Don’t give up big plays and just make stops when you needed to.
Big plays on offense gave Jefferson the early lead as the ground and pound Wildcats utlized its punishing running game to control the ball. Wildcat quarterback Trent Teman spearheaded the offensive attack.
“Hats off to Delphos Jefferson,” Spencerville head coach Chris Sommers said. “Ben (Rahrig) has done a great job with them and that coaching staff has done a phenomenal job. They have a really good team. I am proud of our guys. We battled and like they have all year. We played hard but it just wasnt’t enough tonight.”
Temen, who finished with 55 yards on nine caries on the ground, got 42 of those on a run play that led to the Wildcats’ first touchdown.
Temen, who was 2 for 3 with 60 yards and a touchdown, tossed a 53 yard pass to Braylon Scalf to give Delphos a 14-0 lead after the first quarter.
With the offense getting the job done early, it was the special teams and the defense that contributed to the majority of the scoring for the remainder of the game.
The special teams produced two blocked punts, one for a touchdown and a blocked field goal that went for a score. The second blocked punt set up a touchdown. The Wildcats also returned a kickoff for a score when Scalf went 95 yards for a touchdown.
Defensively, the Wildcats shutdown the Spencerville running game and did a bend but don’t break approach as they tried to contain Spencerville quarterback Josh Henline, who was 29 of 43 for 346 yards with one interception and two touchdowns.
The Wildcats returned that one interception for a score after after Kardner Agner grabbed a hot potato ball being batted around on tipped ball up in the air that Agner snagged and raced 60 yards for the touchdown to give Jefferson a 21-0 advantage with 6:52 left in the second quarter.
Delphos Jefferson owned a 35-0 lead at halftime.
Reach Jose Nogueras at 567-242-0468.
