Minster Earns Repeat Playoff Win over Springfield Catholic Central, 48-13

By Bruce Monnin

SPRINGFIELD — Last year the Minster Wildcats traveled to face the Springfield Catholic Central Irish in the first round of the playoffs. They faced a talented quarterback with two targets who each went over 100 yards in receiving. It was a tie game in the third quarter until Minster pulled away for the 44-21 victory.

Saturday night, they did it all over again. The Wildcats made the same trip to face the same quarterback and receivers as last year. Seven minutes into the game, the Irish had already amassed 205 yards of offense and led 13-7. A change in defense held Springfield Catholic to just 50 yards and no points for the rest of the game, while the offense went wild in the second quarter en route to a 48-13 victory.

“They made some early throws down the field,” commented Minster coach Nate Moore, “but I was proud that our guys never faltered.”

It took only three plays into the game for the Irish to cover 68 yards and take a 7-0 lead. It was looking bleak for the Wildcats when they were forced to punt, and Springfield Catholic completed a 46-yard pass deep into Minster territory. The Wildcats were saved from another Irish score when quarterback Brian Kelly was sacked and fumbled the ball on the next play.

As would happen throughout this wide-open game, it took Minster just two plays to take advantage, when Korey Schultz ran for a 66-yard touchdown. Schultz had a huge night, rushing for 186 yards and four touchdowns on just seven carries, and adding a 70-yard interception return for a fifth score. As a team, the Wildcats ended up with 300 rushing yards for the game.

“We have two guys (Schultz and Troy Kauffman) who can go all the way if the offensive line gets them to the second level of the defense,” noted Moore.

After the Irish easily went 90 yards on their next drive to make the score 13-7, Minster decided a change was needed in the defense. “We brought pressure early and we did not do a good job of containing their quarterback,” explained Moore. “So, the defensive ends were instructed to make sure the quarterback did not get outside of them, and the results were six sacks, five interceptions and no points allowed the rest of the night.”

The second quarter belonged to the Wildcats. On the first play of the period, Troy Kauffman ran for a 36-yard touchdown. The extra point from Devon Poeppelman, returning after a three-week absence due to injury, gave Minster a 14-13 lead they would never relinquish. They would tack on Schultz five- and 28-yard scoring runs and a one-yard touchdown pass from Adam Niemeyer to Poeppelman to make the score 34-13 at the half.

Minster received the second half kickoff, and it took just one play to ice the game. Again, it was Schultz, who tore through the Irish defense for a 65-yard scoring run. The last points in the game came late in the third quarter when Schultz intercepted a pass and returned it 70 yards to make the final score 48-13. It was one of five interceptions on the night for the Wildcats, the others by Kauffman, Niemeyer, James Borges and Jay Eilerman.

Besides the 61 total points and 665 combined yards from the two teams, there were also a plethora of negative plays. The teams combined for 10 turnovers during the game and each team was penalized for over 100 yards.

8-3 Minster advances to the regional semifinals against 10-1 Fort Loramie next Saturday in a game that will be played at Wapakoneta. The Wildcats gave Fort Loramie their only loss of this year, a 26-5 defeat at Minster during the first week of the season.

Score by quarter 1 2 3 4 Total

Minster 7 27 14 0 48

Springfield Catholic 13 0 0 0 13