Sebastian Smith with a hit during last week’s game with Paint Valley (Kira Kidd Photo)
Blanchester will return to the friendly confines of Barbour Memorial Field Friday night for its home opener and the end of one of the hottest stretches of practice in recent memory.
Temperatures were in the mid to upper 80s all week and with the humidity it felt more like 100 degrees in some cases. BHS head coach Justin Schmitz said everybody’s dealing with it and you have to be cautious.
”We’ll lean on our training staff to ensure we’re following the proper protocol as far as heat and humidity go,” he said. “Weather’s a part of the game. We don’t seek comfort or run from that aspect of the game. We run to it, embrace it, and view it as an opportunity to get better.”
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Friday. Following the News Journal or Blanchester athletics on twitter.com for any game-time changes.
Schmitz, the first-year head coach, and his Wildcats will welcome SBAAC American Division rival Batavia to the Cherry Street field.
“Batavia’s a big physical group,” said Schmitz. “They lost to a very tough Williamsburg squad (last week). Their quarterback can sling it. He makes smart decisions and gets the ball out quick. They love getting their athletes out in space and they’ve got some good ones. We’ve got to be more sound on defense this week. We’ve got to put ourselves in good field position and we have to value the football more.”
Blanchester lost to Paint Valley last week 35-14 while the Bulldogs were dropping their opener to Williamsburg 46-12. Max Roller had a big game for the Bulldogs as quarterback.
The Wildcats were playing right with the Bearcats last week but two late first half scores started a 28-0 run for Paint Valley and sent BHS to the loss in Schmitz first game as head coach.
“I was really happy about the way our kids fought through adversity,” Schmitz said. “Turnovers absolutely killed us. It’s tough to come back from drive killers and momentum shifters, but our kids didn’t quit fighting. Jude Huston played like his hair was on fire all night. Caleb Sears was our leading tackler on the night.”
