Defense Dominates in St. Henry 21-7 Win over Minster

By Bruce Monnin

Daily Standard Correspondent

MINSTER — What looked to be an offensive shootout early turned into a defensive grind of a game between St. Henry and Minster. In the end, it was the Redskins who made the fewest mistakes and generated just enough offense for a 21-7 victory over the homestanding Wildcats.

Minster received the opening kickoff and ran the ball the first five plays. On the sixth play Dan Mueller threw a screen pass to Michael McVety who ran through the St. Henry secondary for a 56-yard touchdown reception and a 7-0 lead.

St. Henry’s response was less dramatic. The Redskins pounded out a 17-play drive which generated six first downs and used up most of the first quarter. On critical fourth down and one play at the Minster 16-yard line, Andy Puthoff gained the one yard necessary to keep the drive alive. Soon thereafter, St. Henry converted a third down and eight with a ten-yard pass from Doug Griesdorn to Kyle Bruggeman. A two-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Vogel completed the drive to tie the score at 7-7.

The Minster offense proceeded to self-destruct in the second quarter, as they fumbled twice and threw one interception before halftime. The first fumble at their own 18-yard line led to a three play St. Henry touchdown drive culminating in a 12-yard scoring pass from Griesdorn to Ryan Hartke.

But St. Henry failed to capitalize on the other two Minster miscues. An interception by Puthoff at the Wildcat 24-yard line was followed by the Redskins driving to the Wildcat three. The only St. Henry penalty of the game, five yards for illegal substitution, pushed the ball back so that a 25-yard field goal was attempted and missed wide. Another Minster fumble at the St. Henry 42-yard line was followed by a Redskin drive that ended with Tony Dahlinghaus intercepting a pass in the end zone to keep the Wildcats within 14-7 at the half.

“I thought our first quarter was strong, and I thought defensively we created some opportunities in the second quarter,” commented St. Henry coach Jeff Starkey. “We have never really converted those opportunities all season long; that’s been the story of our season.”

“Defensively we played pretty well at times,” added Minster coach Whit Parks. “Offensively we couldn’t get too much going. That’s kind of the story of our season. We emphasized all week that field position was going to be critical to this game, so when we gave them the ball twice in our territory, that was the difference in the game.”

The third quarter was dominated by the defenses. St. Henry had three possessions in which they failed to achieve a first down, but Minster’s offense could only respond with two first downs of their own in their three attempts with the ball.

The Redskins put the game away at the start of the final quarter as they compiled a 16-play touchdown drive which used over half of the fourth quarter clock. Eleven running plays comprised the bulk of the drive, though a 22-yard pass from Griesdorn to Hartke put the ball deep in Minster territory and a six-yard pass to Toby Boeckman scored the last touchdown of the game, making the final score 21-7.

“Our kids were able to put a good drive together at the end of the game to put the game out of reach,” complimented St. Henry coach Jeff Starkey. “We really felt good about the way our defense was playing, and that caused us to play a little more conservative on offense the rest of the game because we felt that our defense was carrying us at that point.”

Next week Friday St. Henry, now 4-4, hosts the 7-1 Versailles Tigers. Minster (3-5) travels for its final MAC of the season game at 2-6 Parkway with sixth place in the conference standings on the line.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

St. Henry 7 7 0 7 — 21

Minster 7 0 0 0 — 7