Minster Wins Wild 41-34 Victory over Anna

By Bruce Monnin

MINSTER — If a football fan had walked into Minster Memorial stadium with 3:20 to play in the game, they may well have seen the most exciting, if not well played, football of the season. In that time frame, the fan would have seen Anna fumble the ball, Minster throw an interception, Anna snap a ball over the quarterback’s head and Minster complete the game winning 85-yard touchdown reception.

All of that action still left another 1:46 remaining. Anna would still fumble the ball attempting a hook and lateral, Minster would fumble the ball while attempting to run out the clock, and Anna would drive to the Minster seven-yard line before Eli Wolf would grab an interception in the end zone to seal the Wildcat victory.

“Credit our seniors,” said Minster coach Geron Stokes. “We battle. We are not pretty nor sharp, but we compete.”

The Anna Rockets looked to be the better team in the first half, as quarterback Josh Robinson completed 15 of his 17 pass attempts, including touchdowns to Wes Showalter and Nick Ihle. Anna also scored on a three-yard run by Matthew Bruce.

The Wildcats countered with two Josh Nixon touchdown passes, one to A.J. Huelsman and the other to Ethan Wolf. This kept Minster within eight points of the Rockets, 21-13, at the half.

The Wildcats exploded out of the locker room for the first three scores of the second half. Touchdown runs by Sam Dues, Eli Wolf and Jacob Stechschulte gave Minster a 33-21 lead early in the fourth quarter.

“We made no halftime adjustments at all,” said Stokes regarding the cause of the change in momentum. “We just harped on executing our own stuff.”

Just when it seemed Minster had the game in hand, the pendulum swung back towards Anna. Robinson took a keeper around the right end and threaded his way 55 yards for a touchdown to reduce the Rocket deficit to 33-28.

On the Wildcats’ next possession, they lost nine yards in their three plays and a 20-yard punt gave the Anna the ball at the Minster 42-yard line. Three plays later Robinson found Ihle for a 23-yard touchdown pass and the Rockets retook the lead, 34-33 with 5:11 left in the game to set up the thrilling sequence which followed.

Once again, Minster failed to move the ball on their next offensive possession and were forced to punt. Anna completed a 16-yard pass and then broke a ten-yard run to dishearten the Wildcat fans. However, at the end of the run Scott Sekas stripped the ball from the Rocket runner and Minster had new life.

Two plays later Minster returned the favor, as Nathan Arling intercepted Nixon’s pass at midfield with 2:24 remaining. Anna was unable to put Minster away, as on the first play they snapped the ball over the quarterback’s head for a 13-yard loss, helping the Wildcats to force a punt which returned the ball to them on their own 15-yard line with 2:03 and no timeouts remaining.

It took two plays for Nixon to find Eli Wolf in single coverage. After the Wildcat offensive line picked up the Rockets’ blitz, Wolf outjumped his defender for the ball at the 40-yard line and then outran him for the final 60 yards. Minster succeeded on a two-point conversion with Eli Wolf running the ball around the right end to make the score 41-34.

With under two minutes remaining, Anna reached into their bag of tricks. The Rockets attempted the hook and lateral, but Jacob Dues was able to deflect the pitch. Eli Wolf landed on the loose ball to apparently seal the Wildcat victory.

However, Minster would fumble a quarterback snap two plays later and Anna was still alive at their own 38-yard line with 1:12 remaining. Five completed passes later and the Rockets were at the Minster seven-yard line with six seconds left on the clock. Robinson faded back for one last pass, but Eli Wolf snagged the interception in the end zone and Minster survived.

Coach Stokes admitted that he was not planning on going to the air for 366 of the team’s yardage for the game, but it did lead to a couple of new Minster records. Eli Wolf caught 10 passes for 249 yards, setting new single game marks in both categories. The passing yardage by Nixon was two yards shy of the school record he set against Sidney Lehman four weeks ago.

3-3 Minster remains alive in the playoff hunt and will remain at home to face 3-3 Parkway next Friday. 2-4 Anna will face a tough road test at 5-1 Coldwater.

Score by quarter 1 2 3 4 Total

Minster 7 6 13 15 41

Anna 7 14 0 13 34

First Quarter:

ANN – Wes Showalter 2 yd pass from Josh Robinson (Shaun Wenrick kick), 7:08

MIN – A.J. Huelsman 9 yd pass from Josh Nixon (Jason Schultz kick), 4:35

Second Quarter:

ANN – Matthew Bruce 3 yd run (Shaun Wenrick kick), 7:47

MIN – Ethan Wolf 6 yd pass from Josh Nixon (kick failed), 4:31

ANN – Nick Ihle 30 yd pass from Josh Robinson (Shaun Wenrick kick), 0:32

Third Quarter:

MIN – Sam Dues 5 yd run (pass failed), 8:10

MIN – Eli Wolf 15 yd run (Jason Schultz kick), 2:36

Fourth Quarter:

MIN – Jacob Stechschulte 6 yd run (Jason Schultz kick), 11:20

ANN – Josh Robinson 55 yd run (Shaun Wenrick kick), 8:55

ANN – Nick Ihle 23 yd pass from Josh Robinson (pass failed), 5:11

MIN – Eli Wolf 85 yd pass from Josh Nixon (Eli Wolf run), 1:46

Team statistics MIN ANN

First downs 18 23

Rushes - yards 25-57 31-179

Passing yards 366 271

Comp - att - int 20-36-2 26-34-1

Total yardage 423 450

Return yards 104 89

Punts - average 3-37.3 4-40.3

Fumbles - lost 1-1 3-2

Penalties - yards 6-45 6-30

Time of possession 20:10 27:50

Individual statistics

Rushing: Minster, Stechschulte 12-44, Eli Wolf 1-15, S Dues 3-6, Nixon 9-(minus 8); Anna, Bruce 17-85, Robinson 9-76, Cain 4-16, Grieves 1-2

Passing: Minster, Nixon 20-36-2-366; Anna, Robinson 26-36-1-271

Receiving: Minster, Eli Wolf 10-249, Ethan Wolf 7-93, Huelsman 3-24; Anna, Ihle 9-129, Showalter 5-51, Grieves 3-35, Counts 3-15, Bensman 3-3, Bruce 2-20, Suthers 1-18