Blue Jays Stop Wildcats in Homecoming Tilt

By Don Bachman

A pair of electrifying touchdown runs, one by Virgil Will for 87 yards and another by Marinus Puthoff for 85, gave Maria Stein St. John’s Blue Jays a 25-14 win over Minster before a large homecoming crowd here Friday night.

The Wildcats, who finished the hard-fought contest ahead in the statistics, could not cope with the Blue Jays’ jet-propelled halfbacks. Johnny Froning passed well enough to have given the Cats a victory, but his receivers could not hang onto his accurate heaves, dropping at least two touchdown throws.

Minster took the opening kickoff and moved to its own 40 before Johnny Froning’s short pass intended for Rol Hausfeld was deflected into the arms of Maria Stein’s Griesdorn who was downed on the 43. Puthoff and Mescher advanced the ball to the 39, followed by Will’s off-tackle slant to the Wildcat 24. Puthoff picked up another first down to the 11. Clune picked up eight more and Puthoff one before Will raced around end to score. J. Mescher’s kick was good, and St. John led 7-0 early in the game.

The Blue Jay line stopped the Cats and Dave Seger punted to the Maria Stein 39. On the second play the Blue Jays fumbled with Jim Brown recovering for Minster on the 40. The visitors got the ball right back as Davis fumbled on the first play and Puthoff recovered on the St. John 40.

A nice tackle by Dave Rump threw Puthoff for a five yard loss and Imwalle got off a beautiful punt that went out of obunds on the Minster 13.

A 15-yard penalty put the ball on the two, but Seger, Davis and Wente combined to rack up a first down on the 25. After gaining two yards on a sneak Froning three a pair of passes that were incomplete. Seger then got off a short punt that went to the Blue Jay 38. Mescher moved to the 31, but a holding penalty shoved the Jays back to the 46. Clune picked up 14 yards around end and Will smacked through the middle for a first down to the 27. An offside penalty put the ball on the 32. Clune and Mescher picked up eight yards to offset another five yard before Mescher fired a pass to Imwalle to the Minster nine. Will then went off tackle to score and make it 13-0. Mescher’s kick was wide.

One thing that must be said for the Wildcats, they did not give up. Trailing 13-0 against the fired up Blue Jays they took the following kickoff and marched 55 yards on seven plays to score. Brown fell on the Jays’ short kick on his own 45. Wente smacked to the Maria Stein 37 and Froning sprinted to the 25. Bog Dave Seger then blasted through the middle of the line to the 14. Wente picked up two yards but Seger was stopped for no gain.

On third down Froning vaulted over tackle to the two yard line for a first down. Seger then drove over tackle to score. Froning’s kick was perfect, and Maria Stein led 13-7. The Wildcats took over on their own 22 late in the first half and moved to the visitors’ 28. Froning then heaved a pair of beautiful passes, one in the end zone, that were dropped, and the Orange and Black left the field at halftime trailing 13-7.

Seger’s long kickoff to the Maria Stein end zone appeared to have the Blue Jays in trouble, but three plays after Broerman had returned the ball to the nine, Virgil Will raced around his own right end and outran the Minster defenders to make it 19-7. The extra point attempt was wide.

Inwalle’s partially blocked fourth down punt set the stage for the Cats’ second tally. Attempting to punt from his own 16, Imwalle’s kick was partially blocked by Seger and downed on the St. John 24. A pass, Froning to Connaughton, was good to the 16. Davis and Froning moved to the eight and Wente to the five before Froning raced over for the score. Froning’s kick was good, and the Wildcats had cut the margin to 19-14.

Then came the play that broke the game wide open. Puthoff took the kickoff on his own 15, raced along the sidelines, and aided by a great block by Imwalle, sprinted 85 yards to score. The point attempt was blocked, and St. John led 25-14.

The fourth quarter saw the Wildcats dominate the play as the Blue Jays seemed to take their time and depend on Imwalle’s fine punting to keep the Cats from scoring. The locals moved late in the quarter but ran out of time with the ball on the visitors’ nine.

Just how much the two long touchdown runs by Will and Puthoff meant to the Blue Jays can be seen by a brief glance at the statistics.

Minster had the ball for 63 plays and St. John for only 40. Minster chalked up 238 yards running to the visitors’ 195 and racked up 32 passing yards to the winners’ 17, but St. John led in the department that counted, points.

Virgil Will was the leading ball carrier with 130 yards in 12 plays from scrimmage for an average of 10.8. Bob Wente led the Minster bacls with 83 yards in 13 rushes for a 6.3 average. Froning, besides doing some terrific passing, ran for 77 yards in 13 attempts for a 5.9 average.

Next week the Cats travel to Piqua to meet Piqua Catholic.

Scoring by quarters:

Maria Stein 7 6 12 0 — 25

Minster 0 7 7 0 — 14