Minster Rallies to 20-14 Victory over Versailles

By Bruce Monnin

VERSAILLES — Both the Minster Wildcats and the Versailles Tigers entered Friday night’s game at Hole Field with their positioning for the playoffs on the line. Versailles dominated the early part of the game, building up a 14-0 lead. The Minster defense then stiffened, and the offense scored the next 20 points, with the game winning score coming in the final minute of the game.

Versailles took the ball on the opening drive and pushed it to the Minster 32-yard line before they were stopped by inches on a fourth down running play. The Wildcats were unable to take advantage, as they fumbled the ball away in the first of their three turnovers on the night.

This time the Tigers were not to be stopped, as they drove 60 yards for the opening score. Nick Campbell finished off the drive with a two-yard fade pass to a waiting Damian Richard in the end zone.

Versailles soon had the ball again, as a shotgun snap went through the outstretch hands of Minster quarterback Adam Niemeyer and was recovered by Mike Rutschilling on the Wildcat 14-yard line. The Minster defense again rose to the challenge, as Wes Hegemann and Alan Tebbe stopped Rutschilling just short on another fourth down run.

However, the Tigers would not be stopped for long. After Minster was forced into a short punt, Versailles increased their lead to 14-0 on a 22-yard Rutschilling run. The Tigers had the look of a team on its way to a big victory, unless Minster could change the momentum.

The Minster offense responded with their only real drive of the first half. Niemeyer completed all five of his passes on the possession, including the score which came on a 34-yard strike to Troy Kauffman.

Versailles would reach Minster territory one last time in the half, but again came away with no points. While the Tigers had seemed to dominate the half and had compiled 255 total yards, they only had a 14-7 lead. They would regret not taking advantage of their opportunities, as the Minster defense would only allow them 43 second half yards.

Minster’s second half did not start in an encouraging fashion. Niemeyer, who had completed nine of his eleven first half passes, threw two straight incomplete passes before tossing an interception on his third attempt. This time the Tigers reached all the way to the Wildcat 10-yard line before the Minster defense, with the help of some Versailles penalties, turned back the last Tiger threat of the night.

It took until the fourth quarter for the life to return to the Minster offense. The Wildcats drove 84 yards with Niemeyer completing all five of his passes. They were then confronted with a fourth down and goal to go on the one-yard line. It appeared that Versailles had stopped a Korey Schultz run up the middle, but Niemeyer kept the ball on the excellent fake and ran around the left end of the line to tie the score at 14 apiece.

Neither team was able to move the ball the rest of the quarter until Minster received the ball at the Versailles 33-yard line after forcing a Tiger punt from their own end zone. With only 1:39 remaining in the game, the thought was Minster might be able to get close enough to try a game winning field goal.

“Our guys on the team, we like risks,” countered team captain Kauffman, who was one of the leading tacklers on the night to go along with his touchdown grab. “Maybe in the back of our mind we were thinking field goal, but we wanted the touchdown.”

An eight-yard pass to A.J. Huelsman and a three-yard run by Schultz brought the Wildcats to the 22-yard line with a minute to go. Two more completions to Ethan Wolf and Huelsman took the ball to the Tiger five. With only 35 seconds remaining, Minster copied the first Versailles touchdown of the night. Niemeyer lofted the fade pass into the end zone where Wolf outwrestled the Versailles defender for the ball and the winning touchdown.

“That was a great half of football, the way we all came together,” added Kauffman. “Most of it was just believing in ourselves.”

Both teams compiled 298 yards of total offense during the game. Versailles did most of its damage on the ground, outrushing the Wildcats 183-74. Minster took to the air, throwing for 224 yards to 115 for the Tigers. The difference in the game was the ability of Minster to finish off each of its good drives with a score, while Versailles often threatened but were turned away before scoring any points.

Next week Friday, 7-2 Minster will return home to host 5-3 Delphos St. Johns with the hope of locking up home field advantage in the playoffs. 5-4 Versailles travels to face 6-3 St. Henry.

Score by quarter 1 2 3 4 Total

Minster 0 7 0 13 20

Versailles 7 7 0 0 14