Bowling Green and Perrysburg’s football teams have seen their ups and downs just three weeks into
the season.The Bobcats have shown promise, recording a 35-6 win in Week 2 against Fostoria and the Yellow
Jackets looked superb in their 50-13 Week 2 win over Clay.But both teams enter the Week 4 showdown 1-2 after
concluding their respective nonleague schedules.BG and Perrysburg open Northern Lakes League play on Friday.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m. in Bobcat Stadium."Everybody wants to get off on the right foot. And that’s what
everybody is fighting for," said BG head coach Scott Seeliger."We relish the chance to go against
Perrysburg," he later added. "But you like to get out of the gate 1-0 in the league. The
nonconference does not matter anymore; that record is erased."Although Perrysburg lost to arguably one
of the top programs in the state last week in Central Catholic, it still needs to find a way to rebound
against the Bobcats.Central was a 35-6 winner over Perrysburg last week."We tried hard," said
Perrysburg head coach Matt Kregel. "We got caught up in the speed and level of competition and lost
track of what we were coached to do and we didn’t play well."We lost focus," he added. "We
just needed to get back to fundamentals and do the little things right."A positive note for Perrysburg
is Kregel said believes starting tailback/linebacker Mark Delas will play Friday. Delas has been out with a
shoulder injury since the first quarter of the season-opener against Whitmer.Seeliger said BG will have to
be up to the challenge in order to stop Delas, if he is healthy enough to play."We’re going to have to
stop a big, physical running back," Seeliger said. "That’s going to take gang-tackling and 11 guys
to the football."The Bobcats will have to deal with Delas on the defensive side of the ball as well.
Kregel said having Delas back at linebacker will help to solidify the defense."With Mark being out, we
had some issues at linebacker exposed, with tackling and things like that," Kregel said.Perrysburg has
also has some issues with its offensive line. Currently only one senior, Luke Adams, is starting on the
line. Right tackle Aaron Steele had been battling an injured ankle, but he appears healthy and will rotate
in this week with Huan Liang."We’re a lot more confident when we can keep our guys healthy,"
Kregel said.On the other side, the Bobcats are embracing the chance to play with a team of Perrysburg’s
caliber, according to Seeliger.BG is coming off of a heart-breaking 26-23 overtime loss to Otsego last week
and will need to bounce back quickly to see success against the ‘Jackets."Perrysburg is a really,
really strong program right now. … They’ve got some size, they’ve got some speed, and that’s going to be a
heck of a challenge for us," Seeliger said."We’re going to be playing against a bigger and overall
faster team," he added. "What’s going to be important is we don’t let them, offensively, get into
the open spaces. We’ve got to try and contain their game."Seeliger noted that for BG to have the most
success it needs to concentrate on playing for a full 48 minutes."We need to establish ourselves as a
team that competes and people have to come ready to play if they’re expecting to get a win," he
said.Kregel stated two more positives for the ‘Jackets heading into Week 4. With Delas back in the mix,
Perrysburg can run its base offense and not rely so heavily on the athletic ability of quarterback Gus
Dimmerling."We can run our entire gameplan," Kregel said.Secondly, according the Kregel, the
confidence amongst the team must still be high. Perrysburg’s two losses are to last year’s Division I
runnerup (Whitmer) and Division II state champion (Central)."If we do things right we can be
good," Kregel said. "We won’t see much better competition for a long time after playing those
guys."