A look at the Bluffton football team

BLUFFTON 2022 RECORD: 5-5 overall, 4-3 NWC KEY GAME: Sept. 8, at home, against Delphos Jefferson. Bluffton's last winning season was a 7-3 record in 2015. But the Pirates are 12-13 over the past three seasons and could be poised for a breakout kind of year where not only a winning record, but a run at a NWC title and a strong playoff showing are distinctly possible. Nonleague games against Benjamin Logan, Pandora-Gilboa and Ayersville will surely test the Pirates as they head into their NWC opener with Jefferson. Last season, Bluffton was 5-2 overall and 4-0 in the league but lost three straight to Allen East, Jefferson and Columbus Grove. A rotation in the schedule moves the Delphos Jefferson game to the Sept. 8 NWC opener for Bluffton, which returns nine players who earned some level of all-league recognition last year. The Pirates' performance against the Wildcats will go a long way in determining whether Week 9 and Week 10 games at Allen East and Columbus Grove might have league title implications riding on them. PLAYOFF HISTORY: Bluffton made it to the 1991 Division V state championship, blanking Cincinnati Country Day 27-0 in the semifinals, but falling 34-13 to Newark Catholic in the final. The Pirates made seven more trips, all between 1996 and 2004, and hold a 4-9 playoff record. INTERESTING FACT: Bluffton has not won a NWC football championship since 2005 and an outright league crown since 2004. The Pirates remain, though, one of the league's more decorated teams with 14 NWC championship trophies in the awards case. Delphos Jefferson has the most NWC title with 16; Columbus Grove has 15, then comes Bluffton. Bluffton won consecutive NWC titles in 1998, 1999 and 2000. There was great balance in the league, however, with the Pirates having to share the crown all three years, with Grove in 1998, Grove and Jefferson in 1999 and with Jefferson again in 2000. BLUFFTON PIRATES 2023-2024 SEASON SCHEDULE Aug. 18 Benjamin Logan (H) Aug. 25 Pandora-Gilboa (H) Sep. 1 Ayersville (A) Sep. 8 Delphos Jefferson (H) * Sep. 15 Spencerville (A)* Sep. 22 Ada (A)* Sep. 29 Convoy Crestview (H) * Oct. 6 Leipsic (H) * Oct. 13 Allen East (A)* Oct. 20 Columbus Grove (A)* * Northwest Conference Game - All games 7 p.m.