Long Balls Lead Minster Past Fort Recovery, 31-7

By Bruce Monnin

FORT RECOVERY — It’s not how often you pass the ball, it’s how successful those attempts are. Minster’s Aaron Heitbrink threw just eight passes and completed just four, but those four completions were good for 218 yards and four touchdowns in the Wildcats 31-7 win at Fort Recovery.

“We feel we need to throw a little bit more, to expand our passing game,” explained Minster coach Whit Parks. “They had eight men in the box all the time. They played 5-3 and had their guys up inside, so we thought they were a little vulnerable to the pass.”

It was a tight game early, with each team coming up empty on two possessions. Minster then scored with only 25 second remaining in the first quarter on the first of Zac Boeke’s three long touchdown catches, this one for 48 yards.

Midway through the second quarter, the Indians recovered a Minster fumble and then Bobby Rammel completed a pass to Ryan Staugler on a fake punt play. The Indians proceeded to drive all the way to the Minster ten-yard line, where on 4th down and two the Indian quarterback was sacked for a 12-yard loss to end the threat.

Minster followed three plays later with a 72-yard touchdown catch, which Boeke took out of the hands of the Fort Recovery defender before running for the end zone.

The Indians mounted one last offensive drive before half. A 17 play, 80-yard effort was capped by a Matt Tobe one yard touchdown plunge with five seconds remaining on the clock to reduce their halftime deficit to 14-7.

Fort Recovery started out the second half by fumbling to Minster on their own 18-yard line. But the defense held and limited the Wildcats to a 25-yard Brendan Whitford field goal.

“It (the fumble) sure didn’t help, but our defense came in, played well and made them settle for three,” stated Indian coach Brent Niekamp. “I thought at that point we were still in pretty good shape, momentum wise.”

But on the Wildcats’ next two possessions, air Minster struck again, as Heitbrink first hit Troy Parks for a 68-yard score and then hooked up with Boeke again for a relatively short 30-yard strike.

Both coaches had similar thoughts on why Minster was able to pull away in the second half. “I didn’t think that we were emotional enough (in the first half),” explained Parks. “I didn’t think we acted like we were ready to play. We got their attention and challenged them to play a little more physical, a little more inspired football, and I think they did that.”

Coach Niekamp explained it from the Fort Recovery perspective. “They (Minster) turned up their level of play in the second half and we didn’t find that next level. We came out hard, but we were pretty much the way we were the first half, while they were able to play a little harder.”

The win evens the Wildcats record in MAC play and gives them a winning record for the season thus far. “We’re 2-1 with a lot of tough football games ahead of us,” stated Parks, “but we’ll enjoy this tonight.”

Difficult tests await both teams next week Friday. Minster hosts 3-0 Delphos St. Johns while Fort Recovery, now 1-2, hits the road to face 3-0 Versailles.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Minster 7 7 10 7 — 31

Fort Recovery 0 7 0 0 — 7