Minster Runs to 41-20 Victory over New Bremen

By Bruce Monnin

NEW BREMEN — It took the Minster Wildcat offense a series to get going, but then they turned their running backs loose for 315 yards in a 41-20 victory over their neighbors to the north, the New Bremen Cardinals.

“Our kids earned the right to win this week,” commented Minster Coach Geron Stokes, who earned his first win as coach of the Wildcats. “They practiced like they wanted to win.”

On the first Minster series, New Bremen shut down the Wildcat passing attack which had been so successful last week. The next time Minster had the ball, they turned to their running backs. Two plays later Jacob Stechschulte broke through the center of the Cardinal line and ran 67 yards for the score and the 7-0 lead.

New Bremen responded with a good kickoff return and a 38-yard pass from Garrett Westerbeck to Jacob Gilberg to reach the Minster two-yard line. However, a snap over the quarterback’s head set the Cardinals back 16 yards and helped the Wildcat defense to hold without surrendering any points.

“Getting that stop helped the momentum go our way. We were an 0-2 team,” added Stokes. “We needed that.”

The Minster offense wasted no time in putting up two more scores. The first on the next play as Sam Dues broke through the middle of the New Bremen defense for an 85-yard touchdown run. The next score came on a 53-yard pass from Josh Nixon to Eli Wolf. New Bremen was not about to give up, however, as they put together a nine play, 74-yard touchdown drive which was capped off by a 34-yard Westerbeck scoring run. The first quarter ended with Minster ahead, 21-6.

The Wildcats controlled the second quarter, with Dues scoring on runs of one and five yards to make the halftime score 34-6. Minster ended the half with 246 yards rushing. 148 of those belonged to Dues, who would end the game with 209 yards on 17 carries, making him only the ninth Wildcat running back in school history to break the 200-yard mark in a single game.

The scoring slowed down in the third quarter, with the only tally belonging to Minster. Nixon found A.J. Huelsman in the end zone for a 20-yard scoring strike to increase the Wildcat lead to 41-6.

Much of the fourth quarter was played by the reserves for both teams. The Cardinals posted the last two scores of the game, the first on a 63-yard Westerbeck run around the left end and the last on a 13-yard pass from Trey Naylor to Colin Scheib for the final 41-20 score.

Next week the 1-2 Wildcats host for an important game with a fellow region 22 opponent, the 0-3 St. Henry Redskins. The 0-3 Cardinals will also play an opponent from region 22, going on the road to play the 1-2 Parkway Panthers.

Score by quarter 1 2 3 4 Total

Minster 21 13 7 0 41

New Bremen 6 0 0 14 20

First Quarter:

MIN – Jacob Stechschulte 67 yd run (Jason Schultz kick), 8:50

MIN – Sam Dues 85 yd run (Jason Schultz kick), 6:13

MIN – Eli Wolf 53 yd pass from Josh Nixon (Jason Schultz kick), 3:59

NB – Garrett Westerbeck 34 yd run, 0:21

Second Quarter:

MIN – Sam Dues 1 yd run (Jason Schultz kick), 10:56

MIN – Sam Dues 5 yd run (kick failed), 4:46

Third Quarter:

MIN – A.J. Huelsman 20 yd pass from Josh Nixon (Jason Schultz kick), 7:58

Fourth Quarter:

NB – Garrett Westerbeck 63 yd run (kick failed), 10:18

NB – Colin Scheib 13 yd pass from Trey Naylor (Colin Scheib run), 0:25

Team statistics MIN NB

First downs 17 9

Rushes - yards 40-315 29-146

Passing yards 169 118

Comp - att - int 9-15-3 13-20-1

Total yards 484 264

Return yards 106 72

Punts - average 2-34.5 8-27.9

Fumbles - lost 1-1 0-0

Penalties - yards 4-43 2-28

Time of possession 23:19 24:41

Individual statistics

Rushing: Minster, S Dues 17-209, Stechschulte 7-95, Huelsman 9-12, Nixon 3-1, Falk 4-(minus 2); New Bremen, Westerbeck 14-87, Gilberg 8-25, Naylor 2-17, Hoffmaster 2-8, Parker 1-5, Scheib 1-4, Schwieterman 1-0

Passing: Minster, Nixon 9-14-2-169, Falk 0-1-1-0; New Bremen, Westerbeck 10-17-1-78, Naylor 2-2-0-44, Blaine 1-1-0-(minus 4)

Receiving: Minster, Ethan Wolf 6-96, Eli Wolf 1-53, Huelsman 1-20, S Dues 1-0; New Bremen, Gilberg 4-45, Ferguson 3-58, Schwieterman 3-7, Hoffmaster 2-(minus 5), Scheib 1-13