Last season, Wilmington and Batavia met after the post-season had concluded for both teams.
This year, the Hurricane and Bulldogs will open SBAAC American Division play Friday night in Clermont County.
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Friday at Holman Stadium.
Wilmington limps in to the game at 1-4 while Batavia is 1-3.
“League play is important and hopefully, we can stay healthy and get everybody back on a consistent basis and go 1-0 this week,” WHS head coach Scott Killen said.
The Hurricane lost last week to Edgewood 42-7. Several starters missed the game for non-Covid-19 issues.
When going over the video from the loss on Saturday morning, Killen said his team will get better.
“It was frustrating but we did watch it and learned from it,” he said.
In the end, Killen’s message to his team after review was simple.
“The small things matter the most,” he said.
One of the alarming aspects of the loss was poor tackling by the defense. Edgewood seemed to break at least one tackle on every play.
“We were on our heals waiting for somebody else to make the play,” Killen admitted.
The Bulldogs, meanwhile, were losing last week to defending National Division champion Bethel-Tate 82-0. They’ll be licking their wounds and primed to show they are not that bad a football team.
Killen and the Hurricane will not focus on that result, however, as they approach Friday night.
“Right now, we are only worried about ourselves and doing what we need to do to play more consistent and at a high level,” he said.
Since joining the SBAAC for the 2017 football season, Wilmington was won all four meetings with Batavia.
