Springfield knows plenty about Trotwood heading into their Week 3 rivalry game. The Wildcats coaching staff includes four Trotwood alums — head coach Maurice Douglass, Mike Shaw, Mike Page and John Wortham — and two former Rams assistant coaches in Conley Smoot and Derrick Atterberry.
It will be the fifth game Douglass has coached against his alma mater. The Trotwood-Madison Hall of Famer is 2-2 all-time against the Rams. He led the program to its first state championship in 2011.
“It’ll be a fun game,” Douglass said. “It’s always going to have its own intensity to it because you’re going against the school we all graduated from and coached at and played at and whatnot. It’ll be a pretty intense game.”
The Rams are 0-2 this season. They lost 6-0 at Cleveland Heights in Week 1 and fell to Fairmont 27-18 in Week 2.
“They’re kind of like us right now,” Douglass said. “They’re trying to find an identity on offense. Both have really stout defenses. I know (Trotwood coach Jeff Graham) will get those guys going, I just don’t want them to get going this week. Another week would be perfectly fine with me. They’re going to be somebody you don’t want to face at the end of the year.”
Two years ago, Springfield beat Trotwood 41-0. The Wildcats lost to the Rams 21-20 last season in Trotwood. Springfield scored a TD late in the fourth quarter, but missed a game-tying extra point and were unable to rally in the final moments.
“They got the most recent win, even if it was by one or by 40 — it doesn’t matter,” Douglass said. “They got the last one, so we just want to go out and get this one.”
The game will be Springfield’s final non-conference game before it opens Greater Western Ohio Conference play next week against Miamisburg.
Springfield fell to Winton Woods 16-6 in the season opener and lost to Washington, D.C.-area power Gonzaga College 14-6 last week. The Wildcats believe they’ve got a good football team despite the setbacks in the first two weeks of the season.
“We’ve always believed, but when you schedule teams like that, you know you’ve got a chance to run the risk of being 0-2,” Douglass said. “These are national teams and teams that have won state championships recently. … We’ll be alright. We’re going to weather the storm.”
The goal, Douglass said, is to be playing your best football at the end of the season. The non-conference schedule will only help them prepare for GWOC play and the postseason, he said.
“All you want to do is get to the end and be one of the 16 teams in the playoffs,” Douglass said.
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