Minster Survives Furious St. Henry Comeback, 21-19

By Bruce Monnin

MINSTER — The Minster Wildcats came into this game having only defeated the St. Henry Redskins once in 17 tries over the previous 16 years. By the end of the game, older Minster fans were thinking back even further, to the state championship year of 1989 when the Wildcats also survived a fourth quarter two-point conversion try to defeat St. Henry 21-19.

The Wildcats had led all night, and after a scoreless third quarter, put together a hard fought 15 play touchdown drive which lasted over seven minutes. Adam Kaiser finished it off with a four-yard touchdown run and Minster led 21-6 with just 5:10 to play.

But the St. Henry passing game had shown potential all night, and this time they completed six straight passes to score with 3:12 remaining. The drive was completed in dramatic fashion when a Minster defender tipped Kyle Stahl’s throw, but Cory Siefring kept his concentration and pulled it in for a 40-yard touchdown which made the Wildcat lead just 21-13. The Stahl to Siefring connection was effective all night, as the two hooked up 13 times for 216 yards and two touchdowns.

Minster recovered the ensuing onside kick, but after one first down they were forced to punt as the clock showed 1:46 remaining. The Redskin passing offense went back into action, starting at their own 24-yard line. A 21-yard pass to Siefring and one of 39 yards to Matt Osterholt (along with two Minster pass interference penalties) brought the ball to the one-yard line. Another pass to Siefring tightened the score to 21-19.

On the two-point conversion try, St. Henry again went to the air, but the Wildcats were able to knock down the pass to hold onto the dramatic victory.

“That was a tremendous team effort,” proclaimed Minster coach Nate Moore. “We proved we can play with anyone mentally. It was also a huge victory because we can start saying the “P” word (playoffs) around here.”

Minster came out firing on all cylinders. After receiving the opening kickoff, the Wildcats handed the ball off to Kaiser on eight of the 13 plays of their drive, including the one-yard touchdown run which gave Minster a 7-0 lead.

After a St. Henry punt, Minster used the big play on their second drive. Quarterback Chase Paxson took off around the corner and outsprinted the Redskin defense for a 59-yard touchdown to make the lead 14-0.

The Wildcats tried the put the game away on their third possession. Twice they had wide receivers behind the Redskin defenders, but twice the passes from Paxson were dropped. It was a turning point in the game, as Minster had 149 of their 316 yards on the night in the first quarter, but never again looked dominant against the St. Henry defense.

St. Henry first dented the end zone with 2:23 left in the first half when Stahl scored on a four-yard run. In what would turn out to be a critical play of the game, the extra point kick failed, and the score was 14-6. The Redskins took the ball back before halftime and drove to the Wildcat 10-yard line, but the Minster defense forced three straight incomplete passes to keep their eight-point halftime lead.

“It was a seesaw battle,” added Moore. “When the offense wasn’t quite getting it done the defense picked it up, and vice versa.”

St. Henry outgained Minster with 385 total yards, 365 of which came through the air, while 222 of the Wildcats’ 316 yards came on the ground. Minster also suffered from 87 negative yards on 10 penalties, five of which were pass interference calls which had the Wildcat fans up in arms all night. On the positive side for Minster, they had zero turnovers while recovering two Redskin fumbles.

Minster’s record improves to 3-4 and they travel to face the 5-2 Versailles Tigers next week. With the loss, St. Henry’s falls to 2-5, and next week they return home to face the 5-2 Anna Rockets.

Score by quarter	1	2	3	4	Total
Minster	14	0	0	7	21
St. Henry	0	6	0	13	19