It was Talawanda’s most lopsided loss, a 46-14 defeat at Harrison last Friday, but coach J.D. Vonderheide found some “teachable moments” in the post-game analysis as well as a few points for optimism.

It was the second of three games for the Braves as they open play in the new Southwest Ohio Conference against league favorites. at Mount Healthy two weeks ago, followed by Harrison, and tonight they face undefeated Northwest. All three of those teams enter play tonight at 2-0 in the SWOC.

At least this will be a home game for the Braves. Kickoff will be at 7:30 p.m.

“Now it’s on to stage three of our brutal opening to the league season,” Vonderheide said. “One of those three teams will play for the league championship. The schedule maker did not do us any favors, but we did not do ourselves any favors.”

The loss last Friday stung the coach a little more than most, in part due to the final margin, but also because he was an assistant at Harrison last year and wanted to do well against his former team, coached by former Miami RedHawks teammate Kent McCullough.

“I told the kids when we were up 14-11 it was the greatest feeling in my football life,” Vonderheide said. “We were down 11-0 and moved back down the field and went up. They responded. That’s what good teams do.”

Tonight the Braves face a 5-0 Northwest team which last year was 7-3, and 4-1 in the Fort Ancient Valley Conference.

“This will be a challenge for us,” the first-year coach said. “They have an explosive offense and their defense is sound. This is a group coach Chad Murphy has groomed. He has played young guys and taken his lumps. Now, he is in his third year. I told our kids ‘This is what we’re building to.’ They play hard. They play physical. They are sound on both sides of the ball.”

Northwest beat Ross last week 31-14, led by quarterback Cory Roberson, who was 13-of-28 passing for 181 yards and a touchdown. He also ran 12 times for 66 yards and a touchdown.

The Knights’ defense forced four turnovers against Ross, three of them interceptions by Dominick Williams, including two returned for touchdowns, one a school-record 99-yard return.

“They will be a huge challenge for us, but it is not impossible. There are things we can do. We’ve got to get the mindset that we expect to win,” Vonderheide said.

Harrison scored two touchdowns and a safety against THS in the final 6:37 last Friday, making the loss a lot more lopsided than Vonderheide said it really was.

“(Harrison was) in control but we did not do anything to stop them in the end,” the coach said. “We had three interceptions late into a heavy wind, trying to make things happen. They made adjustments.”

Talawanda rallied from its early 11-0 deficit with a pair of touchdowns by sophomore Maurice Thomas on runs of 20 and 17 yards.

Vonderheide said he hopes to be looking at his team’s future tonight. “It’s a mentality. That’s where we are trying to reach. Offensively, we have made gigantic strides. We have more touchdowns than Talawanda did all last season.”