Wildcat defense shuts down the Tigers

Minster advances to first state semifinal since 1989 season

By Colin Foster

PIQUA — Minster coach Geron Stokes talked about the challenge West Liberty-Salem’s offense presented in the days leading up to their Division VI, Region 22 final showdown. That challenge was accepted.

Minster’s defense shut down a Tiger offense that came in averaging more than 40 points per game and running back Evan Huelsman (17 carries, 195 yards) ran wild as the Wildcats claimed their spot in the state final four with a dominating 35-0 win at Alexander Stadium/Purk Field.

The orange and black advance to the state semifinal to play Tinora, a 17-0 winner over Bucyrus Wynford. The site for the game will be announced at 2 p.m. on Sunday.

“How about that defense, man?” a fired-up Stokes said. “That’s a good offense. I’ll tell you, the one thing, the big factor was the weather. I thought one team wasn’t affected by it and that was us. We were jacked up, ready to go and ready to win. Our seniors are doing an awesome job leading.”

As always, the Minster air attack showed up in a big way. Receiver Bryce Schmiesing had four catches for 180 yards and two touchdowns. Quarterback Josh Nixon went 11-for-17 for 304 yards but was intercepted three times while deep in Tiger territory. Those interceptions prevented the game from getting completely out of hand. Minster out-gained West Liberty 523-188.

Minster forced a three-and-out on West Liberty’s opening series and took over at the Tiger 44-yard line. Huelsman ran for a 32-yard gain on the first play and Sam Dues stampeded his way to paydirt from 12 yards away on the next set to put the ‘Cats up 7-0 with 9:46 to go in the first quarter.

West Liberty took over at its own 20 on the ensuing series and moved down to the Wildcat 25 yard-line on a 45-yard completion from Brandon Upton to Trent Thomas, but a high snap led to a 14-yard loss and a sack by Peter Ranley eventually led to a punt. That was one of three times the Tigers were on the Wildcat side of the field in the opening half.

Minster got the ball at its own 11 after the punt, and for the second straight series, Huelsman ran for a big pickup (35 yards) to get the series rolling. A couple Josh Nixon-Jacob Dues hookups moved the ball into Tiger ground. Nixon’s bubble screen to Sam Dues on a third-and-long went for 29 yards and moved ball down to six-yard line. After the quarter break, Huelsman fell into the promised land from one yard out, capping off an 11-play, 89-yard drive.

Upton and Thomas hooked up for a 43-yard completion on the following series, but Eli Wolf wrapped up Brandon Wolfe for six-yard loss to set up third-and-long and then the Wildcats forced an Upton fumble on the next play that was pounced on by Hayden Schindler.

Nixon connected with Bryce Schmiesing for 45 yards on first play after the fumble recovery. Schmiesing later picked up 31 to set up first-and-goal, but a chop block on Minster resulted in a loss of 15 and Nixon’s next pass was picked off.

The Tigers, however, did nothing with it, going three-and-out, and for the second time, Minster took over in West Liberty territory. Nixon was intercepted again going for a home run in the end zone.

Following another Tiger three-and-out, Minster faced a third-and-14, but Nixon found Schmiesing, who broke a tackle, shook another defender, and ran down the sideline for a 66-yard TD with 2:58 left in the half.

Schmiesing had three catches for 144 yards at half. Huelsman racked up 92 yards on six carries.

Jason Schultz took a shovel pass from Nixon for 52 yards and into Tiger terrain on the opening series of the second half and Huelsman broke off a big run to set up first-and-goal at the eight, but the Wildcats coughed the ball up on the next play and West Liberty took over inside the five.

Minster forced a three-and-out and then rode the back of Huelsman all the way to the end zone — this time from 14-yards out. Kicker Jason Schultz remained perfect on extra points in the postseason to make it 28-0 with 5:43 left in the third.

“My line, they did well tonight,” Huelsman said. “I stepped it up.”

“We challenged our offensive line all week,” Stokes said. “We knew what they were going to do defensively and we said, ‘we’ve got to run the football.’ Our offensive line answered the bell.”

Schmiesing pulled in a 36-yard touchdown pass from Nixon with 37.7 seconds left in the third quarter, and the running clock went the rest of the way.

“We like our matchup with Bryce,” said Stokes about Schmiesing, who finished with four catches for 180 yards. “We told him he had to go out and make a play and he did.”

Next week will be Minster’s first state semifinal appearance since 1989, when Ken Newland’s squad beat Sandusky St. Mary’s 16-7 en route to beating McDonald at Ohio Stadium for the school’s only state football title.

“We’re not done yet,” Stokes concluded. “We’ve got to go back to work. We turned the ball over four times in the red zone.”

“It’s just really cool for these seniors who questioned whether they were doing the right thing early on and then really bought in and tried to do things the right way ... and they’ve reaped the benefits from a lot of time and effort invested.”

Score by quarter 1 2 3 4 Total

Minster 7 14 14 0 35

West Liberty-Salem 0 0 0 0 0

First Quarter:

MIN – Sam Dues 12 yd run (Jason Schultz kick), 9:46

Second Quarter:

MIN – Evan Huelsman 1 yd run (Jason Schultz kick), 11:55

MIN – Bryce Schmiesing 67 yd pass from Josh Nixon (Jason Schultz kick), 2:58

Third Quarter:

MIN – Evan Huelsman 14 yd run (Jason Schultz kick), 5:43

MIN – Bryce Schmiesing 36 yd pass from Josh Nixon (Jason Schultz kick), 0:37

Team statistics MIN WLS

First downs 18 9

Rushes - yards 28-219 21-30

Passing yards 304 158

Comp - att - int 11-17-3 10-31-0

Total offense 523 188

Punts - average 0-0.0 5-31.8

Fumbles - lost 1-1 2-1

Penalties - yards 7-75 4-33

Time of possession 23:50 24:10

Individual statistics

Rushing: Minster, Huelsman 17-195, Nixon 5-15, S Dues 5-10, Schmiesing 1-(minus 1); West Liberty-Salem, Anderson 9-35, Wolfe 3-6, Burden 1-2, Upton 8-(minus 13)

Passing: Minster, Nixon 11-17-3-304; West Liberty-Salem, Upton 10-31-0-158

Receiving: Minster, Schmiesing 4-180, Schultz 3-63, J Dues 3-33, S Dues 1-28; West Liberty-Salem, Thomas 4-107, Evans 2-35, Williams 1-11, Secor 1-9, Moell 1-3, Anderson 1-(minus 7)