Minster Runs past Parkway, 35-15

By Bruce Monnin

ROCKFORD — After a sloppy start to the game in wet and windy conditions, a long drive late in the second quarter allowed the Minster Wildcats to take a halftime lead over the Parkway Panthers. Minster would then use a bruising ground game to pull away in the second half for a 35-15 victory.

The pattern of miscues started early. Parkway was forced to punt into the wind, and the 15-yard effort gave the Wildcats the ball at the Parkway 37-yard line. Minster reached the 16-yard line before a fumbled handoff gave the ball back to the Panthers.

Later in the quarter, after a Parkway drive was extended after a successful fake punt play, Jacob Dues intercepted a Panther pass, but during the return Devon Stover forced a fumble which was recovered by Tysun Thatcher to return the ball to Parkway hands.

The Minster defense forced another punt, and this time a 34-yard pass from Josh Nixon to Eli Wolf set up a Nixon quarterback sneak touchdown to give the Wildcats a 7-0 early lead.

Midway through the second quarter, the Panthers struck back. After stopping Minster on fourth down for the second consecutive drive, Justin Barna hit Alec Schoenleben for a 32-yard touchdown pass to even the game at 7-7.

In an attempt to run out the half, Minster turned to running back Evan Huelsman. The Wildcat back took the handoff on fifteen of the next sixteen plays, eventually scoring on a four-yard run with just 24 seconds remaining in the half to give Minster a 14-7 lead at the break.

Huelsman ended the half with 120 rushing yards in 26 carries. He would end the game with 142 yards, part of the team’s 247 rushing yards for the game.

The Wildcats started slowly in the third quarter, as Ryan Lautzenheiser picked off an early Nixon pass. On Minster’s next possession, Bryce Schmiesing took a pitch on the end around and sprinted 19 yards to a score which finally opened up the lead to 21-7.

The Wildcats started the fourth quarter with another score, this time Sam Dues running 19 yards for the score. Minutes later, Schmiesing received a Parkway punt at the Panther 44-yard line, started out along the right sideline, then cut back across the field to reach the left corner of the endzone for the longest Minster punt return of the season.

Jason Schultz’s 39th extra point of the season made the score 35-7. Justin Barna would later score on a 34-yard run against the Wildcat’s second-string defense to make the final score 35-15.

7-3 Minster (5-3 in the MAC) will host a first-round playoff game next Friday against 8-2 Mechanicsburg. 1-9 Parkway ends their season with a 1-7 record in the MAC.

Score by quarter 1 2 3 4 Total

Minster 7 7 7 14 35

Parkway 0 7 0 8 15

First Quarter:

MIN – Josh Nixon 1 yd run (Jason Schultz kick), 2:02

Second Quarter:

PW – Alec Schoenleben 32 yd pass from Justin Barna (Justin Rice kick), 6:36

MIN – Evan Huelsman 4 yd run (Jason Schultz kick), 0:24

Third Quarter:

MIN – Bryce Schmiesing 19 yd run (Jason Schultz kick), 6:47

Fourth Quarter:

MIN – Sam Dues 19 yd run (Jason Schultz kick), 11:51

MIN – Bryce Schmiesing 44 yd punt return (Jason Schultz kick), 9:11

PW – Justin Barna 34 yd run (Alec Schoenleben pass from Justin Barna), 7:32

Team statistics MIN PW

First downs 17 9

Rushes - yards 47-247 30-115

Passing yards 79 55

Comp - att - int 9-12-1 5-18-3

Total offense 326 170

Punts - average 1-15.0 7-19.6

Fumbles - lost 2-2 0-0

Penalties - yards 4-40 2-19

Time of possession 26:28 21:32

Individual statistics

Rushing: Minster, E Huelsman 30-142, S Dues 4-44, J Huelsman 5-26, Schmiesing 1-19, Nixon 5-14, Harmeyer 2-2; Parkway, Dugan 11-59, Barna 14-52, Gangwer 3-6, Lautzenheiser 2-(-2)

Passing: Minster, Nixon 9-12-1-79; Parkway, Barna 5-17-3-55, Lautzenheiser 0-1-0-0

Receiving: Minster, Schultz 6-43, Wolf 1-34, J Dues 1-6, Schmiesing 1-(- 4); Parkway, Flaugher 2-8, Schoenleben 1-32, Lautzenheiser 1-11, Gangwer 1-4