Coldwater Dominates Minster 48-7 To Set Up Showdown with Versailles

By Bruce Monnin

COLDWATER — With a big game at Versailles coming up next week, some people thought maybe Coldwater would be looking past Minster this week. However, the Cavaliers showed they were fully focused on the task at hand, as they dominated the Minster Wildcats in a 48-7 win, the twelfth year in a row Coldwater had come out on top in this MAC matchup.

“These kids show a lot of maturity,” commended Coldwater coach John Reed. “We’ve talked about Versailles, but we’ve said we need to springboard off Parkway and springboard off Minster to be able to play the way we need to against Versailles.”

“They are a great football team,” admitted Minster coach Whit Parks. “They have a lot of athletes so give them credit for that.”

While Minster held Coldwater to just 57 yards rushing in the first half, the Cavaliers came out with its passing game firing on all cylinders, with quarterback Steve Borger connecting on 11 of 13 passes for 222 yards and four touchdowns before intermission.

“I think the difficulty with us it that it is hard to defend both,” explained Reed. “Either you have to commit to stop Ross (Homan), or you have to commit to stopping the passing game. I don’t know, unless you can just physically outman us, that you can take both of those away.”

Minster started the game on their own four-yard line, and after gaining what would turn out to be their only first down of the first three quarters, were forced to punt. Ross Homan carried the ball six times for 40 yards on the ensuing drive before Borger hit Brady Geier for a four-yard touchdown pass, only the second touchdown reception the Wildcat defense had given up on the season.

On Coldwater’s second possession, Borger completed a 39-yard pass to Devin Swartzel to penetrate deep into Minster territory. Three plays later, Borger hit Geier again, this time for 16 yards to give the Cavaliers a 14-0 lead after the first quarter.

Coldwater struck through the air again their next series. Borger completed 35-yard passes to both Justin Kahlig and Geier. Then after a couple of penalties resulted in a 3rd down and very long situation, Borger hit Geier again for a 34-yard touchdown pass.

One final scoring pass, this time 23 yards from Borger to Kahlig, made the score 28-0 at halftime.

The second half started out on a scary note for Coldwater when Geier was injured on the kickoff return and taken from the field on a stretcher. His status was still uncertain after game time. “I think he is fine,” stated Reed. “I think it was for precaution. He kind of rolled up over his head when he went down and had some pain in the middle of his neck, so they were trying to be very cautious.”

The incident did not seem to slow down the Cavaliers as it took them only three plays to drive 76 yards and score on a 15-yard Borger run. A Homan 1 yard run and a Troy Harlamert 15-yard run rounded out the Cavalier scoring on the night. Minster broke onto the scoreboard in the fourth quarter when quarterback Aaron Heitbrink broke free for a 48-yard touchdown run.

With the victory, Coach Reed becomes the leader in all time coaching victories in Coldwater history with 110 wins. “This just means I’ve been around a long time. It’s been a great thrill to have been here at Coldwater for eleven years. It’s been a joy.”

Next week Friday Coldwater, now 7-0, travels to its long-awaited showdown with the top ranked team in division five, the 7-0 Versailles Tigers. Minster (3-4) hosts 3-4 St. Henry next Friday.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Coldwater 14 14 13 7 — 48

Minster 0 0 0 7 — 7