Boyd, Defense Lift JFK Past Minster 24-6

By Colin Foster

COLUMBUS — The Warren John F. Kennedy Eagles gained momentum after a series of breaks went their way in the second quarter.

And behind a great defense and a great performance by running back Evan Boyd, JFK broke away from Minster in the Division VII state championship game.

The Eagle defense gave up an early Wildcat touchdown but ended up forcing three turnovers and limiting them to just 159 yards of total offense. Boyd rushed for 171 yards and two second-half touchdowns as JFK claimed the title with a 24-6 victory on Saturday at Ohio Stadium.

“That’s a really good football team that deserves a championship,” Minster coach Geron Stokes said. “They play the right way. They play physical and tough. They created problems for us the whole game. You can’t get here in a game like this, in a building like this and turn the ball over like we did. We haven’t turned the ball over all year. To do that here is just bad timing.”

Minster (10-5) had scored 25 points or more in each of the last six games. But after having had success moving the ball on their first two drives Saturday, the Wildcats were completely contained by a defense that posted six shutouts and allowed a total of 98 points in 15 games this season.

“This is as good of a defense as I’ve ever been associated with,” JFK head coach Jeff Bayuk said. “Dominic Prologo is our defensive coordinator, and he does an excellent job getting the kids ready. Our mantra is to fly to the ball. We call ourselves the ‘Blue Storm’ and he gives us an identity and he gets everything out of our kids that he can get out of them.”

“They fly to the football,” Stokes said. “They blitz. They stunt. They move. They attack, and that rattled us.”

The Wildcats allowed two first downs and forced three Eagle punts on their first three offensive possessions. And the Minster offense was clicking early.

Minster began its first series at the 29-yard line with 10:02 left in the first quarter. Bryce Schmiesing tied Ada’s Kyle Baker for an all-time state record with a reception in 43-straight games on Minster’s first play. The Wildcats used a 21-yard pass play from Jared Huelsman to Jon Niemeyer and a 12-yard Schmiesing run to advance the ball into the red zone but soon faced a fourth-and-2 from the nine. They were stopped there as Boyd sacked Huelsman for a loss.

The next time the Wildcats got the ball, though, they finished off the drive.

Huelsman dropped a pass over the shoulder of Isaac Schmiesing, who made a sliding catch for a gain of 42 yards to put Minster at the JFK 17 with three minutes left in the first. A minute later, Huelsman snuck in for a 1-yard touchdown. A missed extra point left the score at 6-0.

Boyd returned the ensuing Minster kickoff to the 40-yard line, and he eventually put JFK into Wildcat territory for the first time early in the second quarter. The drive was ultimately derailed by an illegal block and the Eagles were forced to punt for a third time.

But JFK caught a break after the punt. And another one after that and another one after that. Then the Eagles overtook Minster for good.

JFK’s third punt pinned Minster at its own 10. On the first snap for Minster, Huelsman fumbled on an option-handoff exchange and the Eagles recovered at the eight.

However, the Eagles gave the ball right back to Minster two plays later. Dan McCartney fumbled as he tried to make something happen on a reverse and Minster’s Alex Lehmkuhl was there to recover at the six-yard line.

Then Minster returned the favor. Huelsman’s third-down pass attempt went through the hands of Bryce Schmiesing and into the hands of Ryan Lee to set up JFK with a first-and-goal at the eight — again. Boyd appeared to cough up the pigskin and give it back to Minster on JFK’s first play. He was ruled down. And two plays later, quarterback Gregory Valent snuck in for a one-yard TD. An extra point by Justin Bofenkamp made the score 7-6 with 6:02 remaining in the half.

The breaks kept coming for the Eagles.

On the following kickoff return, Jon Niemeyer’s fumble was picked up by Zach Lewis and gave JFK another short field at the 30. The Eagles were stopped on a third-and-five from the 12, but Bofenkamp hit a 29-yard field goal to make it a 10-6 Eagle lead at halftime.

“(Turnovers) gave us a spark and our defense has given us a spark all year,” Bayuk said. “We scored three defensive touchdowns in the regional game against Norwalk St. Paul. They really toed the line for us until we could figure out what exactly we could do to move the ball on offense.”

Minster had back-to-back three-and-outs to open the second half and gave the Eagles golden field position both times. The Eagles cashed in on the second of those punts. They went 43 yards on nine running plays, with Boyd doing the majority of heavy lifting before scoring from one-yard out with 1:22 left in the third to make the score 17-6.

Niemeyer gave Minster some life heading into the final quarter when he took the kickoff to midfield. A series of strong runs by Huelsman helped the Wildcats get inside the Eagle 10, but they couldn’t get the eight-yard line on the next four plays as Huelsman’s fourth-down pass attempt sailed incomplete.

The Eagles dashed any hope for a Minster comeback with an 11-play, 91-drive — kept alive by Minster’s roughing the penalty — that was capped by Boyd’s 39-yard touchdown run with 3:10 left in the game.

And two years after Minster claimed its first title in 25 years on the same field, JFK ended its own 25-year drought and gave Bayuk his first state title as a head coach.

“I really thought they punched us in the mouth early,” Bayuk said. “Our kids were a little nervous. This is my first time here. I was a little nervous. But we got our feet under us, and I’m proud of the way we performed.”

Huelsman totaled 14 carries for 53 yards in the loss. Alex Oldiges had a game-high 15 tackles for the Minster defense, who surrendered just 233 yards of total offense.

The Wildcats’ eight-game winning streak ended on Saturday. And the season ultimately didn’t end with the trophy they wanted. But after a 2-4 start, it’s not a bad ending at all.

“I’m really proud of our team,” said senior lineman Isaac Dorsten. “We were 2-4 at one point in the season (and) people questioned if we were going to make playoffs. But ending the year here in Columbus, I couldn’t be prouder and happier with how we finished the season.”

Score by quarter 1 2 3 4 Total

Warren JFK 0 10 7 7 24

Minster 6 0 0 0 6

First Quarter:

MIN – Jared Huelsman 1 yd run (kick failed), 1:51

Second Quarter:

JFK – Gregory Valent 1 yd run (Justin Bofenkamp kick), 6:02

JFK – Justin Bofenkamp 29 yd FG, 1:40

Third Quarter:

JFK – Evan Boyd 1 yd run (Justin Bofenkamp kick), 1:22

Fourth Quarter:

JFK – Evan Boyd 39 yd run (Justin Bofenkamp kick), 3:10

Team statistics JFK MIN

First downs 12 10

Rushes – yards 53-226 21-72

Passing yards 14 79

Comp - att – int 3-5-0 10-25-1

Total yards 240 151

Punts – average 4-31.5 3-29.7

Fumbles – lost 1-1 2-2

Penalties – yards 6-67 3-35

Time of possession 31:22 16:38

Individual statistics

Rushing: Warren JFK, Boyd 34-163, Valent 13-48, McCartney 2-12, Hadley 1-2, Coates 3-1; Minster, Huelsman 14-49, B Schmiesing 7-23

Passing: Warren JFK, Valent 3-5-0-14; Minster, Huelsman 10-25-1-79

Receiving: Warren JFK, Burton 2-14, Boyd 1-0; Minster, I Schmiesing 3-49, Niemeyer 3-27, B Schmiesing 3-8, Huelsman 1-(-5)