Minster Advances to Regional Semi-Finals

Defeats Tri-County North 48-7

By Bruce Monnin

MINSTER — Friday night was the first time Minster has been the host for a playoff football game. To add to the newness of the occasion, the Tri-County North Panthers, a team the Wildcats had never before played, was the assigned opponent. It turned out to be a night to remember for the Wildcats, and one to forget for the Panthers as Minster advanced in the postseason with a 48-7 victory.

Minster came out of the gate quickly, scoring on their first three possessions. Each score came on a pass from quarterback Adam Niemeyer. The first touchdown came after just three Wildcat offensive plays, when Niemeyer connected with Ethan Wolf for a 25-yard touchdown strike. Three minutes later, the two struck again, this time on a seven-yard score. With still 2:45 remaining in the first quarter, Niemeyer found a new target on an eight-yard pass to Devon Poeppelman, making the score 20-0.

While the Minster offense was rolling, the defense was shutting down Tri-County North. After their first five drives, the Panthers had been held to a negative seven yards of total offense.

The game became sloppy in the second quarter, with both teams having drives stopped by penalties and failed fourth down conversions. The Wildcats offense came back to life when Korey Schultz broke free for a 54-yard run to the Tri-County North one yard line. Schultz took it in for the score on the next play to give Minster a 27-0 lead.

The half ended with a flurry of interceptions in the final minute. The Panthers had worked their way to the Minster ten-yard line when Poeppelman picked off a pass and returned it 38 yards. One play later Tri-County North returned the favor, as JJ Macpherson returned his pick to the Wildcat 39-yard line. The Minster defense stopped the Panthers one last time, as Prater Otting achieved the rare interception of a shovel pass just before the half.

The Panthers came out of the locker rooms to put together a ten play, 70-yard drive, their best offensive performance of the evening. A four-yard Macpherson scoring run cut the Minster lead to 27-7 and gave the Wildcats fans a brief period of worry.

Their discomfort would not last long. Niemeyer would shortly find A.J. Huelsman behind the Tri-County North defense. His 44-yard scoring reception regained the momentum for the Wildcats and increased their lead to 34-7.

Minster would tack on two more fourth quarter scores. First Niemeyer would find Jay Eilerman for his fifth touchdown pass of the night, then Scott Sekas would score on a 39-yard scamper for the final 48-7 result.

Besides the playoff win, it was also a night many Minster records fell. Adam Niemeyer completed 16 of 22 pass attempts for 264 yards, only 15 yards short of a 30-year-old Wildcat record held by Tony Hemmelgarn. The effort gave Niemeyer 153 completions on the year, breaking Chase Paxson’s 2010 record. He also has 2191 passing yards for the season, again breaking Paxson’s mark.

When a quarterback is setting records, often a receiver is also having a good year. Devon Poeppelman caught his 97th career reception, tying a record set by Daniel Gushing last season. Devon also reached 706 yards receiving for the season, breaking Greg Heitkamp’s 29-year-old mark of 658 yards.

“We weren’t perfect, but we did a lot of good things,” commented Minster coach Nate Moore. “Unfortunately, the injury bug hit, and that is not a good thing.” Indeed, at least two Minster players did not return to the game after injuries, including Garrett Hogenkamp, who had to be assisted off the field by EMT personnel.

“We did a lot of things right,” remarked captain Korey Schultz, mirroring the comments of his coach, “but there are a lot of things we can improve upon.”

The other team captain, Troy Kauffman, returned at times to the running back position he played so well last season. He made sure the offensive line got their credit for the offense’s success. “It was great getting back to the running back spot. The line made holes for us and gave Adam time to throw,” explained Kauffman. “Give a lot of credit to those guys. They’ve come a long way (since the start of the season).”

9-2 Minster advances to the regional semifinals against 9-2 Marion Local next Friday. The Wildcats won this playoff matchup in 2010 while the Flyers took their revenge in last year’s postseason rematch. The teams are thus familiar with each other, even though they did not play yet this season. “The fact that we didn’t play them in the regular season adds an element of mystery to the game,” added Schultz.

Score by quarter 1 2 3 4 Total

Tri-County North 0 0 7 0 7

Minster 20 7 7 14 48