Minster Outlasts New
Bremen 21-13
By
Bruce Monnin
NEW BREMEN —
All night long the Minster offense drove relentlessly towards the New Bremen
end zone, but it was the Cardinal defense coming up big time and again. Minster finally punched in a score with less
than two minutes remaining to secure a 21-13 victory and become one of the few
teams in the state to have a 4-0 record in road games.
Minster moved the ball inside the New Bremen
40-yard line on nine of their ten possessions in the game but could only come
up with three touchdowns. On the other
side of the ball, the Cardinals scored early in each half but were then shut
out the rest of the game by the Wildcat defense. New Bremen would gain more yardage in four
plays at the start of the two halves than they would for the rest of the game
combined.
It only took 36 seconds for New Bremen to grab
the early lead as Caleb Williams completed a 38-yard touchdown pass to Dillon Otting to ignite the home crowd. Minster responded with what would be the only
other score of the first half, but they took a bit more time. Fourteen plays and almost seven minutes
later, Ty Whitford ran for 19 of his
On the Cardinal’s next possession Brian Phlipot intercepted a New Bremen pass at midfield. “In the first half we went right down and
scored,” explained New Bremen coach Robert Messick, “then we threw the ball a
little bit, but they did a good job covering us.
On the next play Wildcat quarterback Austin Baumer ran for seven yards but was injured while being
tackled by the facemask. Baumer would not play the rest of the game and sophomore
Chase Paxson came in to take over the reins of the Minster offense.
“We felt comfortable with Chase all year,”
stated Minster coach Eric Belcher. “We
probably threw as much as we normally would have with Chase in there.”
Minster drove to the 10-yard line but had their
field goal attempt blocked. New Bremen
responded with a drive of their own to the Minster 14-yard line, but the
Wildcat defense stopped the Cardinals on a fourth down and one running
play. Most of the rest of the half was
played on the New Bremen side of the field with no scoring.
New Bremen struck early again in the second
half. On their first play, Corey Jutte
took an option pitch and streamed down the sidelines for a 73-yard touchdown
scamper. A missed extra point would turn
out to be huge, as it gave the Cardinals a six-point, 13-7 lead.
This time, Minster answered right back in a
quicker fashion. On the Wildcats’ second
play, Paxson connected with Brian Mueller for a 62-yard touchdown completion,
and Mueller’s kick gave Minster a 14-13 lead.
It appeared New Bremen would immediately regain
the lead as they drove to the Minster 11-yard line, but a fumbled snap and a
sack forced the Cardinals to attempt a 37-yard field goal which was long enough
but a little wide.
The rest of the game belonged to the Minster
offense. An eight-play drive resulted in
a punt, then an eleven-play drive was stopped on downs at the Cardinal 11-yard
line. Late in the fourth quarter the
Wildcats received the ball on the 31-yard line and decided to try something
different by giving the ball to fullback Ian Ranly. “Ty (Whitford) ran
the ball well tonight, but he jukes quite a bit. At the end, that was not what we were looking
for,” explained Belcher.
Ranly pounded the ball for
4, 5 and
Next week Friday 4-1 Minster plays only its
second home game of the season versus the 1-4 Versailles Tigers. The 1-4 Cardinals travel to face the 3-2 Fort
Recovery Indians.
SCORE BY QUARTERSMinster 7 0 7 7 — 21
New Bremen 7 0 6 0 — 13