New Bremen Grabs First
Win of Season over Minster 29-6
By
Bruce Monnin
MINSTER — When two winless team play, sometimes the
final result comes down to which team wants to win more. It was the New Bremen Cardinals who seemed to
want this rivalry game more, as they turned some big plays and sturdy defense
into a 29-6 victory over the Minster Wildcats.
“I’m very proud of the boys. We’ve taken some knocks the last three weeks,
we really have, and our attitude has been great” stated New Bremen coach Robert
Messick. “They had a great week of
practice and worked really hard. There
was never a doubt in their mind all week what they wanted to do here
tonight. There was zero motivation we
had to do as a coaching staff. They were
ready to get this monkey off their back.”
The Cardinal defense was stellar on the night,
holding the Minster offense to only seven first downs and 118 total yards. The only score they gave up was after their
offense gave Minster the ball just
Neither team was able to move the ball on their
opening drive, but on their second possession Bryce Bergman chalked up one of
his two completions on the night, a sharp pass to Brad Wendel who ran
A Cardinal fumble gave the Wildcats the ball at
the New Bremen 24-yard line just at the end of the first quarter. Minster proceeded to gained two of their
three first downs in the half to drive for the score in seven plays, with Jacob
Kaiser going in from one yard out to tie the game at six apiece.
When the Wildcats stopped New Bremen on a
fourth-down play in the next series, it appeared Minster had the momentum. But the Cardinal defense forced a Wildcat
punt, which was blocked by Keith Clune.
Anthony Moeder scooped up the lose ball and
rambled
Three plays later Calib
Cox intercepted a Minster pass, and the Cardinal offense was back in
business. On the next play, Bergman
completed his other pass of the night, a 26-yard touchdown strike to Corey
Jutte which gave New Bremen a 19-7 halftime advantage.
Minster’s offense drove into Cardinal territory
three times in the second half, but the New Bremen defense stopped them each
time, once even when the Wildcats failed to convert on a fake punt.
Midway through the fourth quarter the Cardinals
tacked on the final score of the game.
On a fourth-down play, Bergman kept the ball and not only gained the
three yards needed for the first down, but sprinted
all the way into the end zone for a 22-yard scoring jaunt. The two-point conversion made the final score
29-6.
Messick hopes this game can lead to other wins
in the future. “Anytime you get a win, it springboards you into next week,” stated Messick. “This week we really concentrated on getting
drives finished off and playing stronger defense. Hopefully, this will show the kids if they do
those things, obviously we win.”
Next week Friday 1-5 New Bremen returns home to
face the similarly 1-5 Versailles Tigers.
0-6 Minster travels for an Oktoberfest weekend game at 5-1
Coldwater.
SCORE BY QUARTERSNew Bremen 6 13 0 8 — 27
Minster 0 6 0 0 — 6