PANDORA-GILBOA Countdown to football

PANDORA-GILBOA2023 RECORD: 8-4 overall, 5-1 BVCKEY GAME: September 20, at home, against Arlington. Due to some quirks in the schedules, P-G and Arlington have not played each other in a BVC game since 2020. They are paired up this year, though, and it comes at a key mid-point of the season. P-G will be coming into this game after a challenging start against backyard rivals. The Rockets open the season in a Thursday night matchup at Columbus Grove, host Bluffton in Week 2, and have road games at Van Buren and at Leipsic before hosting Arlington in Week 5. This will also be a fourth straight road game for Arlington, and it's a good bet there will be valuable league positioning and Harbin points riding on the outcome.INTERESTING FACT: A good rivalry amps up the preparation for any athletic contest and bragging rights between friends, family, neighbors and co-workers will be on the line in several early-seasons matchups this season. For Pandora-Gilboa, its starts on Thursday, Aug. 22 with 6-mile jaunt down Route 12 to face off with Columbus Grove for the 51st straight year and 67th time overall. A week later the Rockets host Bluffton, a school just 9 miles down Route 696 that has been on the schedule since before they hyphenated Pandora and Gilboa into one school. In week 4, P-G travels 12 miles north up Route 12 for their third backyard bash to take on Putnam County rival Leipsic for the 56th time since the BVC came into existence in 1965.MAGIC NUMBER: 19. Nineteen points is all that kept P-G from a perfect 10-0 regular season a year ago. After opening the season with a narrow 25-22 win over a Columbus Grove team that would go 13-2 and reach the Division VI state semifinals, the Rockets suffered 7-point losses to Bluffton (28-21) and Leipsic (21-14). Four consecutive wins later, P-G took BVC champion Liberty-Benton to the wire before falling 33-28. Close losses can be reflected in a big way in the Harbin playoff points. Last season, P-G earned just enough Harbin points to land a first round home playoff game. A year before that, the Rockets placed ninth in Region 26 and opened the playoffs on the road. P-G just missed a playoff spot by finishing ninth in Region in 2019, and was edged out again a year later, finishing 17th after the OHSAA had expanded the playoffs to the top 16 in each region. 2024 scheduleDate Opponent Home/AwayAug. 22 Columbus Grove A 30 Bluffton HSept. 6 Van Buren* A 13 Leipsic* A 20 Arlington* H 27 Elmwood* AOct. 4 Liberty-Benton* A 11 Arcadia* H 18 Ada* H 25 Riverdale* H*Blanchard Valley Conference games