Minster Soundly Defeats Fort Loramie in its First Varsity Game, 42-0

By Bruce Monnin

MINSTER - In 1949, the Minster Wildcats played their first ever varsity football game, losing 26-6 to Waynesville-Goshen en route to a 0-6-1 record. 56 years later, the Fort Loramie Redskins played their first varsity football game against their rival to the north, hoping for a better result. But instead, the Wildcats rode tailback Michael McVety’s five first half touchdowns to a 42-0 victory.

Minster got an early jump in the game. Fort Loramie was forced to punt after their first three offensive plays. McVety showed off the speed which earned him a trip to the state track meet by racing around the left end of the Redskin line to block the punt, scoop up the pigskin and return it 29 yards for the opening score.

“We emphasized all week that we had to win the kicking game,” explained Minster coach Whit Parks. “When that happens for your first score, it changes a lot of the momentum of the game.”

The blocked punt was not merely a chance occurrence. “McVety blocked one in the Troy Christian scrimmage too,” stated Parks. “We worked on that hard all week long. He’s capable of doing that.”

On Fort Loramie’s next possession, Troy Parks picked off a pass and returned it to the Redskin 18-yard line. Two plays later, McVety scored paydirt again to increase the Wildcat lead to 14 points.

The teams combined for three more interceptions in the remainder of the first quarter, so Minster put the ball back in the capable hands of McVety to start the second quarter and he responded with a 51-yard touchdown run to increase the lead to 21-0.

The rest of the second quarter also belonged to the Wildcats, as Aaron Heitbrink hooked up with Zac Boeke for a 39-yard touchdown pass, followed by McVety touchdown runs of 32 and 3 yards. McVety ended up with 161 yards in the first half and 212 yards for the game.

“He did very well,” complimented Parks. “He’s a young back even though he is a senior, since he hasn’t played. If you look closely, you will see that our young offensive line did an outstanding job. I thought there were some great holes, especially inside after they took our outside game away by alignment.”

Though down by a score of 42-0 at the half, The Redskins regrouped and played a good second half of football in which neither team scored.

They (Minster) kept the first string in there the majority of the third (quarter), and our kids played right with them. I don’t think us being deer in the headlights was there,” said Fort Loramie coach Jon McCumber. “That wasn’t a problem. I think our kids just got outhandled with speed. We’ve got some speed, but it is not to football speed yet. The first half we learned, 42 points worth, then the second half we were able to jump back into the mix and get back up in that game speed a little bit.”

“This football game, I’m glad it’s over,” admitted Parks. It’s been hyped for two years. It’s great that they have football, we’re excited about this rivalry. They have great fans, and you could tell by their support tonight that this is going to be a great thing.”

“We took it as a challenge this week. All we’ve heard about is Loramie, Loramie, Loramie. We were not going to get caught up in all the hype about this game, we were going to play a good football game.”

Next week Friday Minster travels to Versailles to take on the 1-0 defending D4 state runner-up Versailles Tigers. Fort Loramie travels to 1-0 Ben Logan in its next attempt to achieve its first varsity victory.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Minster 14 28 0 0 — 42

Fort Loramie 0 0 0 0 — 0