Wildcats roll past Versailles in regional semi

Minster advances to first regional final since 2010

By Colin Foster

PIQUA — In their first meeting of the season, the Minster Wildcats let the Versailles Tigers hang around before putting them away late in the game. There would be none of that on Friday night in the Division VI, Region 22 semifinal. The Minster offense was hot from start-to-finish and the defense was much better than a week ago, as the Wildcats dismantled the Tigers, 45-19, at Alexander Stadium/Purk Field.

“We were a little worried about the emotional comeback of getting back up for this (game), especially after just beating (Versailles) previously,” said Minster coach Geron Stokes, referring to the turnaround after the Wildcats’ narrow win over Mechanicsburg last week. “Just credit our seniors and the coaching staff. The coaching staff is doing a heck of a job. To get right back up and come out and finish this way, that was huge.”

The Wildcats advance to face West Liberty-Salem in next Friday’s regional final. It is the first regional final for Minster since 2010, while the WL-S Tigers will make their second consecutive appearance in the game after beating Tri-County North 21-14 at Northmont High School.

“They’re a really good football team,” Stokes said. “They’re really well coached. This is a big week, a huge week.”

It was another big night for quarterback Josh Nixon and the Wildcat offense. The junior passed for 282 yards and three touchdowns to go along with two rushing scores. Eli Wolf had six receptions for 105 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Bryce Schmiesing added four catches for 97 yards.

After holding Versailles to one yard on the first series of the game, Minster took over at their own 42. From there, the Wildcats embarked on a 13-play, 58-yard drive — aided by a key hookup between Nixon and Wolf on a fourth-and-five. Nixon called his own number from one yard out and the Wildcats took a touchdown lead.

The Versailles offense had three consecutive three-and-outs to start the game with Collin Peters, the Tigers’ 1,400-yard running back, tallying negative 10 yards rushing on four carries. Minster took over at its own 48-yard line on its second drive, and on the first play, Nixon fired a perfect strike to Schmiesing for a big gain. Three plays later, Nixon ran for a 15-yard touchdown with 4:15 left in the first quarter.

The Tigers’ got their initial first down came with 1:33 left in the opening quarter. Versailles got rolling from there. Back-to-back runs by Peters and a big run by Kyle Dieringer moved the Tigers inside the Minster 40. A few more Peters’ runs set up a 22-yard pass from Jared Niekamp to Jace Barga, making it 14-7 with 10:47 left in the half. Peters went for plus 30 on the drive after losing yardage on his first four carries.

The Wildcats responded by scoring for the third time in four tries on their followup series. After an offensive pass interference call pushed Minster back to its own 35-yard line, Wolf came down with a 33-yard catch in the middle of three Tiger defenders. Schmiesing carried the ball around the end for a pickup of 10 on third-and-10 and then Sam Dues capped off a 10-play, 73-yard drive by bullying his way into the end zone from two yards out.

Versailles marched down inside the Wildcat 25 on its next series, but Wolf killed the drive with an interception, leaving his team with 2:08 to work with. Cue the two-minute offense.

Needing a big pickup on a third-and-long, Wolf ran a short cross and took Nixon’s pass down inside the Tiger 30. Versailles was flagged for a pass interference on Wolf on a fourth-and-10 and kicker Jason Schultz booted through his second field goal of the year from 27 yards away with under 20 seconds remaining.

The Tigers intercepted Niekamp on three straight drives coming out of the locker room, all of which resulted in points. The first by Jacob Dues set up a 34-yard pitch-and-catch from Nixon to Schmiesing on a post pattern to make it 31-7.

Jared Thobe intercepted Niekamp’s first pass attempt on the next series. Nixon found Jacob Dues for a 46-yard completion and then hit Wolf for an eight-yard scoring pass on a back shoulder throw to make it 38-7 and trigger the running clock.

Thobe came up with his second interception of the night, leading to an 11-yard touchdown catch by Jacob Dues from Nixon to make the score 45-7 early in the fourth.

“Our seniors had us dialed in,” Stokes said. “Our underclassmen followed. We just had a really sharp week of practice.”

The Tigers tacked on a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns on a one-yard run by Peters and then a 22-yard rush by Kyle Subler. A week removed from allowing 400 yards rushing to Mechanicsburg, the Wildcat defense held Versailles to under 300 yards of total offense.

“We really won first down,” Stokes said. “That was sharp. You put them in a second-and-long or a third-and-long situation, we felt like we were alright. We have a 21-year-old defensive coordinator (Bret Buchanan). ... I don’t think too many people have that. He’s doing a heck of a job preparing our defense. I’m really proud of what’s taking place.”

Score by quarter 1 2 3 4 Total

Minster 14 10 14 7 45

Versailles 0 7 0 12 19

First Quarter:

MIN – Josh Nixon 1 yd run (Jason Schultz kick), 5:59

MIN – Josh Nixon 15 yd run (Jason Schultz kick), 4:14

Second Quarter:

VER – Jace Barga 22 yd pass from Jared Niekamp (Zach Steinbrunner kick), 10:47

MIN – Sam Dues 2 yd run (Jason Schultz kick), 6:44

MIN – Jason Schultz 27 yd FG, 0:22

Third Quarter:

MIN – Bryce Schmiesing 34 yd pass from Josh Nixon (Jason Schultz kick), 6:10

MIN – Eli Wolf 8 yd pass from Josh Nixon (Jason Schultz kick), 5:36

Fourth Quarter:

MIN – Jacob Dues 11 yd pass from Josh Nixon (Jason Schultz kick), 11:33

VER – Collin Peters 1 yd run (kick failed), 7:20

VER – Kyle Subler 22 yd run (kick failed), 1:47

Team statistics MIN VER

First downs 20 16

Rushes - yards 33-138 36-226

Passing yards 282 49

Comp - att - int 15-27-0 3-11-4

Total offense 410 275

Punts - average 3-24.3 3-31.3

Fumbles - lost 0-0 0-0

Penalties - yards 2-20 2-19

Time of possession 26:00 22:00

Individual statistics

Rushing: Minster, S Dues 12-52, E Huelsman 9-44, Schmiesing 2-19, J Huelsman 5-14, Nixon 4-9, Hogenkamp 1-0; Versailles, Peters 25-155, Dieringer 7-36, Subler 4-35

Passing: Minster, Nixon 15-27-0-282; Versailles, Niekamp 3-11-4-49

Receiving: Minster, Wolf 6-105, Schmiesing 4-97, J Dues 4-77, E Huelsman 1-3; Versailles, Barga 2-45, Dieringer 1-4