Minster Survives 7-0 Defensive Struggle over St. Henry

By Bruce Monnin

MINSTER — Mother Nature and two determined defenses combined to create a soggy and low scoring game between the Minster Wildcats and the St. Henry Redskins. Three red zone stops by the Minster defense kept the Wildcats in the game long enough for Josh Nixon to find A.J. Huelsman for a 40-yard third quarter touchdown to give Minster the 7-0 victory.

The Wildcats received the opening kickoff and drove 26 yards to the St. Henry 44-yard line before punting. It would be the highlight of the half for the Minster offense, as the Redskin defense held them to a total of 10 yards in their next five possessions and 68 yards total for the first half.

The first quarter was no better for the St. Henry offense, as they netted just one yard in their first four possessions. But the second quarter consisted of the Redskins trying to cross the goal line with the Wildcats barely keeping them out.

A 17-yard run by Jordan Osterholt and a 23-yard pass from Mitchel Stammen to Jeff Paul gave St. Henry a first down at the Minster four-yard line. Three runs and an incomplete pass later, the ball was turned over to the Wildcats on that same four-yard line.

The Redskin defense wasted no time forcing a Minster punt, and two running plays by Jesse Niekamp brought the ball to the Wildcat 12-yard line. A quarterback sack by Prater Otting took the steam out of the St. Henry drive and a 29-yard field goal attempt went wide to the right, leaving the game scoreless at the half.

“Our defense gave an unbelievable effort,” complimented Minster coach Geron Stokes. “They were put in bad situations, but they dug their cleats in the ground and got stops.”

The Redskins threatened again early in the third quarter. Minster failed to cleanly field a punt and St. Henry recovered on the Wildcat 20-yard line. Once again, the Minster defense stuffed three straight runs and forced an incomplete pass on fourth down to keep the game scoreless.

The Wildcats then put together the only scoring drive of the game. They started with five straight running plays, four by senior Paul Dues who was seeing his first action of the season as he returned from injury. On a critical third down, Nixon found Huelsman for a 26-yard gain to keep the drive alive.

The next two plays were the most critical of the game. Minster ran the ball up the middle for seven yards, but the ball popped loose, and the Redskin players celebrated their recovery of the apparent fumble. However, the officials ruled the runner had been down before the ball came loose, so the Wildcats retained possession. On the following play, Nixon found Huelsman again for a 40-yard scoring strike, the only score of this 7-0 game.

“We thought we would get that matchup,” described Stokes about the man-to-man coverage on Huelsman. “Finally, it presented itself and the kids made the play.”

Neither team seriously threatened to score in the fourth quarter. While Minster was able to move the ball a little better in the second half, St. Henry was only able to generate 62 yards of second half offense and 142 yards for the game.

Minster’s record improves to 2-2, and they go on the road next week to face the 3-1 Coldwater Cavaliers. St. Henry falls to 0-4, and they also travel to play the 0-4 New Bremen Cardinals.

Score by quarter 1 2 3 4 Total

St. Henry 0 0 0 0 0

Minster 0 0 7 0 7

Third Quarter:

MIN – A.J. Huelsman 40 yd pass from Josh Nixon (Jason Schultz kick), 4:13

Team statistics SH MIN

First downs 6 11

Rushes - yards 31-77 46-151

Passing yards 65 78

Comp - att - int 5-17-1 4-11-0

Total yards 142 229

Return yards 97 23

Punts - average 6-39.8 8-33.9

Fumbles - lost 1-1 1-1

Penalties - yards 1-10 5-30

Time of possession 23:15 24:45

Individual statistics

Rushing: Minster, S Dues 20-58, Stechschulte 12-49, P Dues 10-33, Eli Wolf 1-7, Nixon 3-4; St. Henry, Niekamp 19-56, Osterholt 4-23, Reichert 3-4, Stammen 5-(minus 6)

Passing: Minster, Nixon 4-11-0-78; St. Henry, Stammen 5-17-1-65

Receiving: Minster, Huelsman 3-73, J Dues 1-5; St. Henry, Paul 2-46, Schwieterman 2-22, Niekamp 1-(minus 3)