Rockford 32 – Minster 19

Rockford’s Tigers tallied two touchdowns in the final 30 seconds last Thursday to stop Minster’s Wildcats 32-19 at Rockford. The win was the Tigers’ sixth in eight starts while the Wildcats ended an injury plagued season with one win against seven setbacks.

Minster took the kickoff but lost the ball on a fumble on its own 47. Marty Davis intercepted a Tiger pass and the Cats regained possession but were forced to punt to the Rockford 46. With Dugan and Sedenbender doing most of the ball toting, the Tigers moved to the Wildcat 11 and Sedenbender raced around end to score for the 6-0 Rockford lead.

The Cats took over and picked up two first downs before Dugan intercepted a pass and ran the ball to the Minster 40. But the Orange and Black regained the oval by recovering a Tiger fumble on their own 45. Ed Garman picked up 27 yards to the Rockford 28. A series of plays brought the ball to the Rockford four, and with fourth down and goal to go Garman blasted his way over to tie the score at 6-6.

Rockford picked up one first down to its own 42 but Hausfeld partially blocked a Tiger punt and Minster took over on the 46. A 15-yard penalty put the pigskin on the 31 and a couple of line smashes by Garman moved it to the 14. Bob Wente then raced off tackle, eluded three would be tacklers and ran into the end zone for the score. The kick was wide, but Minster led 12-6 at the half.

A more determined Rockford eleven took the field in the second half and scored before they relinquished the ball. Sedenbender climaxed the drive with a 19-yard sprint around end to make the score 12-12.

After Minster recovered a fumble on their own 29 at the end of the third quarter, Garman paced Minster’s ground attack for three first downs to the Rockford 33. With fourth down and six Froning raced to his left off the “I” formation and passed to the right to Dave Rump who raced to the Rockford 10. A line smash was stopped cold but on second down Froning hit Garman on the six and the Minster co-captain bullied his way into touchdown land. Seger’s kick was good, and the Wildcats led 19-12.

Rockford bounced back as Dugan flipped a 32-yar pass to Sedenberger on the Minster one and Dugan tallied on the next play. Dugan’s kick made it 19-19.

The Wildcats took the ensuing kickoff and moved to the Rockford 40. It was then that the Cats decided they wanted to win their season finale. With fourth and four the Maltinsky-men attempted a pass that was incomplete with two minutes remaining in the contest.

A great catch by Pryor of a Dugan pass on the Minster 12 set up the winning score. Rockford moved to a first down on the Minster two. After two cracks at the goal line failed to gain, Dugan sped around end to score with 30 seconds remaining. Rockford scored again as Froning attempted a pass that was intercepted on the 15 by Barna who scored for the final 33-13 tally.

In losing the Orange and Black played one of their better games of the year. Bob Tebbe, Dueces Huelskamp and Don Schmitmeyer did not appear in uniform for the Rockford fray.

Scoring by quarters:

Rockford 6 0 6 20 — 32

Minster 0 12 0 7 — 19