Fort Recovery Scores
Late to Win 19-15 Thriller Over Minster
By
Bruce Monnin
FORT RECOVERY — It was far from a game of good fundamentals,
and it was a game of more opportunities lost than capitalized upon. But in the end, it was an exciting game, as
Minster took a late lead on a fourth quarter touchdown, only to have Fort
Recovery score the game winning touchdown with 38 seconds remaining in a 19-15
Indian victory.
The first half saw a total of seven turnovers
and 80 penalty yards between the two teams.
But when they returned for the second half, the game became a tight and
tense experience for the fans in attendance.
The first quarter had to remind Minster fans of
last week’s missed opportunities against Versailles. The Wildcats took the ball on their first
possession and drove to the Fort Recovery 18-yard line before fumbling away
their first scoring chance. Fort Recovery
returned the favor with an interception five plays later, and this time Minster
responded by driving
On Minster’s next possession they fumbled on
their first play and Fort Recovery started only sixteen yards from
paydirt. After two incomplete passes,
Frank Thien ran for
After an exchange of punts, Toby Metzger grabbed
another Minster interception near midfield.
As they approached the end zone, an Indian fumble was recovered by Brad Sekas to apparently stop the Fort Recovery threat. But the Wildcats immediately gave it back as
Frank Thien stole a Minster pass near midfield. With time to half running low, the Indians
moved Greg Kahlig to the quarterback position, and he
immediately hit Metzger with a 61-yard touchdown pass. Another penalty moved the point after attempt
back
Fortunately for the fans, the play improved in
the second half as the defenses stiffened and the offenses held on to the
ball. “We said at halftime that we
really weren’t very happy with that half,” stated Indian coach Brent Niekamp. “We didn’t execute very well and didn’t make
a lot of plays we should make.”
Minster coach Eric Belcher agreed. “In the second half they came out ready to
play. They took a whole half to show up
to play the game. We can play better than
we showed tonight, that’s for sure.”
The half started with four punts. On the fourth such attempt, Fort Recovery
snapped the ball over the punter’s head and through the end zone for a safety
to reduce their lead to 13-9. Minster
received the following free kick near midfield, and after a big 33-yard run by Whitford, Ranly scored on a
1-yard fourth down plunge to give the Wildcats the early fourth quarter lead of
15-13.
Fort Recovery was forced to punt on their next
series, and their series after that Sekas recovered
his second fumble of the night for the Wildcats. But the Indian defense refused to let Minster
move the ball, and the Wildcats were forced to punt back to Fort Recovery, who
took over at their own 19-yard line with 2:04 left in the game.
A big 51-yard pass from Kahlig
to Bobby Rammel brought the Indians into Minster
territory. Three plays later they faced
a fourth down and four to go play from the Wildcat 22-yard line. Their choices were to gamble on fourth down
or to attempt a 40-yard field goal. “We
were talking about it (the field goal),” admitted Niekamp. “We have a kid that we feel like is right
there. We were discussing that quite a
bit, but our offensive coordinator made a great call
and our kids made a great play.”
The play was Kahlig taking
off around the corner on a bootleg, in which he gained seven yards for the
first down. That play seemed to deflate
the Wildcats, as two plays later Kahlig ran again for
a 9-yard touchdown that earned the 19-15 win with 0:38 remaining in the game. “That’s (the last drive) just our kids being
tough and playing hard,” complimented Niekamp.
“We talked a lot about playing hard for four quarters. We knew that would be a challenge and our
kids did it tonight.”
Minster recovered the resulting squib kickoff
at the 50-yard line, but four passes went incomplete to end the game.
Next week 2-1 Fort Recovery travels to play 1-2
Versailles Friday. Winless Minster
returns home to face the 0-3 Delphos St. Johns Blue Jays.
SCORE
BY QUARTERS
Fort
Recovery 0 13 0 6 — 19
Minster 7 0 2 6 —
15