Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
It only makes sense that Northwood and Rossford, two working-class communities similar in population and separated by less than seven miles, would battle it out on the gridiron.
The Bulldogs have dominated the recent history of the series, capturing a 21-14 win last year and a 28-7 victory in 2023. The most recent meeting prior to that came in 2018 in which Northwood won a shootout, 48-44. Rossford won the three meetings before that, giving the Bulldogs wins in five of the past six matchups.
Northwood head coach, Ken James, enters his 40th season coaching the Rangers.
Todd Drusback, who previously coached at Genoa, is entering his 16th season at Rossford, and he speaks highly of James.
"I have a tremendous amount of respect for him and the consistency over all of his years at Northwood,” he said. “I've coached against him with four teams — 2000 at Genoa and at Edgerton in 2003, where we were his first playoff win.
“We (also) scrimmaged them when I was at Fremont St Joseph. Now at Rossford, we have played them several times, and the games have all been extremely competitive. You know you're playing a team that is going to play hard, be disciplined and not beat themselves."
Jackson Drusback is the quarterback of Rossford's spread offense that typically features four wide receivers — Jayden Martens, Tyler Clark, Chase Maxwell and Carter Matthews.
"They've always been really difficult to defend,” James said. “When Todd was back at Edgerton, they were one of the early teams to throw the ball and run the spread. I think they were ahead of the curve. He does a really good job of getting the quarterback involved in the running game. I'm sure his son is a good athlete. They're always good at manufacturing favorable matchups."
The Rangers' offense is the wishbone/flexbone.
Quarterback Tyler Osley is back to lead the offense, and he'll be joined in the backfield with the likes of last year’s leading rusher Jason St. Claire, Jaymin Cannon, DeAndre Curry, Skyler Rita, Kevin O'Donnell and Landan Kidd.
The primary wide receivers are Valyric Goings and John Sawyer.
The Rangers are young, but Osley is ready to take the next step in his junior season.
"We were awfully young last year,” James said. “(Our offense) was fairly basic, but we'll open the playbook up a little more this year. We'll give the quarterback more decisions to make, and we have good skill guys on the edge.
“We're giving him more opportunities, pulling the ball on run plays, (and) we've added some pass plays. We'll give him more freedom to change plays.
"We're a play action team, but we'll expand what we did in the past. We're ahead of where we were offensively compared to where we were last year at this time. We'll add wrinkles as we go."
Drusback is ready to defend the run-heavy system.
"We have to be gap-sound and disciplined with our rules for who's got the quarterback, who's got the dive, who's got the pitch man," he said.
It is the Rangers' first season in the Sandusky Bay Conference River Division, where they will face the likes of Margaretta, Woodmore, Gibsonburg and Lakota, among others. Ottawa Hills will join the conference next season.
"The new league is going to be difficult, (but) we have knowledge of some of these teams," James said. "It's a good deal for us. We're a good fit — the demographics are good."
