Minster Overcomes Delphos St. John’s 21-14 In Overtime

By Bruce Monnin

MINSTER — It was a hard fought matchup in the rain between the Minster Wildcats and the Delphos St. John’s Blue Jays. The exciting contest between two playoff teams was filled with many missed opportunities, some caused by the weather and some not. At the end of regulation, the score was tied 14-14 and the game went into overtime.

Minster started out the overtime period with the ball at the 20-yard line. Using a short passing game that had largely been absent from the Wildcat second half offense, Adam Niemeyer first completed an 11-yard pass to Devon Poeppelman, then found his favorite receiver again for a nine-yard touchdown strike.

St. John’s then took their turn in overtime, but without star running back Tyler Jettinghoff, who remained on the sidelines after having carried the ball 26 times for 146 yards during regulation. The Blue Jays faced a fourth down and one to go at the 11-yard line, which they converted for a first down. Two runs by quarterback Mark Boggs brought the ball to the five-yard line, but the Wildcat defense forced two incomplete passes to secure the 21-14 victory.

“That was a hard, hard, hard fought ball game, and we were lucky to come out on top,” commented Minster coach Nate Moore. “I’m just proud of our guys, proud of our senior class. It comes down to heart.”

Coming into Friday night’s contest, Minster had lost sixteen consecutive games to the Blue Jays. The Wildcats survived many St. John’s trips into Minster territory during the game, mainly by forcing five turnovers and blocking a field goal attempt.

“The turnovers were obviously a key to the win,” continued Moore, whose Wildcats never gave up the ball. “They didn’t go 6-4 against one of the best schedules in the state for no reason. They have a great running back and a great offensive line. We had to fight our tails off and hopefully make a couple of plays.”

St. John’s began the game with a drive that would be repeated many times on the night. They drove into Minster territory and fumbled the ball away at the Wildcat 30-yard line. Minster would put together a drive of their own later in the quarter, using a 37-yard Niemeyer pass to Ethan Wolf to work deep into Blue Jay territory. Korey Schultz finished it off with a 13-yard touchdown run as Minster claimed an early 7-0 lead.

St. John’s looked like they would respond early in the second quarter with a 54-yard pass from Boggs to Jared Knebel, but Jay Elierman caught the receiver from behind and forced a fumble that was recovered by Paul Dues. The Blue Jays would return to the deep pass later in the quarter, and this time Will Buettner took the completion 56 yards for the tying touchdown.

Minster tried to take a halftime lead with a 14-play drive that reached the St. John’s 13-yard line, but the 30-yard field goal attempt failed, and the score remained tied at 7-7.

The third quarter saw no scoring, with both Blue Jay drives stopped by Korey Schultz interceptions. St. John’s again reached deep into Minster territory early in the fourth quarter, but their 31-yard field goal attempt was blocked by the Wildcats.

Perhaps buoyed by the momentum provided by their special teams, the Minster offensive line proceeded to open up a big hole and Schultz dashed through for an 83-yard touchdown run. This gave the Wildcats a 14-7 lead with 9:46 remaining in the game. Minster recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff and had a chance to put the game away but were stopped inches short of a first down on a fourth-down play at the Blue Jay 25-yard line.

Desperately needing a score, St. John’s Jays responded with their best drive of the night. Using 14 plays, they drove 75 yards to score on a Jettinghoff three-yard run. The extra point was successful, setting up the Minster overtime dramatics which followed.

The win earns 8-2 Minster the number two seed in region 24. Next week they will host 7-3 Tri-County North during their first ever home field playoff game. 6-4 Delphos St. John’s will also be in the postseason, against an opponent still to be determined after a couple of games are played on Saturday.

Score by quarter 1 2 3 4 OT Total

Minster 7 0 0 7 7 21

Delphos St. Johns 0 7 0 7 0 14