PERRYSBURG – Last season, Perrysburg lost two games in the regular season – a home contest against Toledo
Whitmer and on the road against Toledo Central Catholic.
Fast forward 12 months and the Yellow Jackets are 3-0, having avenged their two regular-season losses
from 2013, and are ranked as the No. 4 Division II team in Ohio.
Was this blistering hot start something players and coaches envisioned?
"You want to believe that you can beat those teams but it doesn’t really set in until you do
it," head coach Matt Kregel said. "I do think the kids and the coaches believed we could pull
it off, but you’re still pretty happy with the outcome."
There’s no question the Jackets are flying high as they head into Northern Lakes League play this Friday
against Bowling Green. The challenge is riding that momentum while keeping focus on each individual
game.
"You can’t let it go to your head or be stuck on Cloud Nine because you have to play the rest of the
schedule," Kregel said. "But we’re pretty happy with the start."
Perrysburg takes on a Bobcats team that comes into the NLL opener riding momentum of their own. The
Bobcats pasted rival Otsego, 42-6, last Friday.
However, having committed 15 penalties in the game, head coach Scott Seeliger wasn’t exactly pleased.
"We harp on it and say it’s not good enough and we challenge every player to take ownership,"
he said. "We were able to win it, but if you get in a tough battle and have 13 penalties in the
first half you aren’t going to be very successful."
A cluster of penalties against a Perrysburg team that has thrived on the big play this season would be a
perfect recipe for defeat.
The key, Seeliger said, is to try and make sure Perrysburg has more opportunities to make mistakes. He
said Bowling Green’s defense needs to keep the play in front of it and make Perrysburg "work for
their scores."
"If we can make them make more snaps when they have the ball, make them have to go 10, 12 plays to
score, then maybe something can happen," Seeliger said. "Maybe there’s a tipped ball that we
catch, or a penalty that sets them back or a dropped pass and all of the sudden they have to punt the
ball. I think that’s the key, is we have to make them work for their touchdowns and don’t give them up
in big chunks."
In wins against Whitmer and Central Catholic, untimely turnovers have set the Jackets back and nearly
cost them victories. Kregel said that can’t happen again this weekend and if it does, he expects Bowling
Green to take advantage.
"I think we’ve been careless with the ball at times, and that let (teams) back into the game,"
he said. "(Bowling Green is) really well coached. They are much improved in terms of athleticism.
You have to pay attention to their skill level and be able to defend those guys."
For both coaches, this game has some personal meaning. Seeliger coached Kregel when he was an offensive
tackle at Bowling Green State University in the early 90s. Since taking over as head coach at Perrysburg
in 2006, Kregel is 6-2 against Bowling Green, including a 42-2 win last year in Seeliger’s first season
coaching the Bobcats.
"The better they are the better the NLL is and we want that," Seeliger said. "I’m really
proud of him. He’s done a really good job and done it in a good way.
But having said that, it would be nice to beat those guys."