Minster Claims First Regional Title in Four Years, 20-0 over Delphos St. John’s

By Colin Foster

WAPAKONETA — Minster coach Geron Stokes did not give his team a high grade for its performance on Friday night. But the Wildcats did plenty enough to pass their latest test. Isaac Schmiesing ran for a touchdown, passed for another and had an interception on defense, and the Orange and Black shut out Delphos St. John’s 20-0 in the Division VII Region 28 title game at Harmon Field in Wapakoneta.

Minster (9-4) advances to next Friday’s state semifinal to face Norwalk St. Paul (13-0), a 49-7 winner over Pandora-Gilboa. The location of the state semifinal will be announced later today by the OHSAA.

St. John’s (8-5) was looking for the tying score early in the third quarter when August Boehnlein intercepted a Jared Wurst pass attempt and returned it 14 yards to the Blue Jay 45-yard line. Then came the momentum-changing halfback pass from Schmiesing to Austin Brown. Jared Huelsman threw in the flats to Schmiesing, who fired to a wide-open Brown on the right sideline for a 45-yard touchdown.

“We’ve ran it before in the regular season,” Schmiesing said. “It worked the first time, so coach decided to go back to it again.”

“Talk about a huge momentum swing for them,” St. John’s Todd Schulte said. “We were a big play or two away from tying the ballgame. Once that happened, you could kind of feel a little bit of the air come out of our sideline.”

The Blue Jays gained just five yards on a game-opening three-and-out. An 11-yard punt gave Minster the ball at the 36-yard line. It took the Wildcats five plays to get into the end zone. Huelsman grinded for 15 yards on three runs and Schmiesing did the rest. He rushed for 11 yards on the next play and then took a pitch around the right edge 10 yards for a touchdown with 8:26 left in the first. Minster ran the “fire drill” after a bad snap. Jacob Hoying avoided heat from St. John’s and heaved up a prayer to the back of the end zone to Joe Winner for a twopoint conversion.

Delphos St. John’s had four drives inside of Minster territory in the first half but the closest it got to the end zone was the 16-yard line. The Blue Jays had a drive stall out at the 21-yard line with back-to-back incompletions early in the second quarter. Later, St. John’s made it to the 37 before Alex Lehmkuhl intercepted Jared Wurst’s deep pass attempt in the end zone. St. John’s took over at the Minster 36 with just under a minute to play, but two passes to the end zone went incomplete as time expired in the half.

The Blue Jays outgained the Wildcats 153-85 in the first half (25 rushing yards and 128 passing compared with Minster’s 78 rushing and seven passing). But Minster put some passing yards on the stat sheet early in the third quarter with Schmiesing finding Brown for the two-score lead with 8:25 left in the third. It was the first time Minster had used the play since Oct. 13 against New Bremen.

“We couldn’t do anything else,” Stokes said. “We were terrible all night. We had to go to that, because we couldn’t do our normal stuff. But credit to Delphos St. John’s.”

Huelsman and Lehmkuhl combined for 49 yards through the air on Minster’s final touchdown drive. The drive culminated with a 14-yard pitch and catch from Huelsman to Lehmkuhl on a fourth-and-nine with 4:00 remaining.

Minster allowed just 46 yards in the second half and ended up outgaining St. John’s 270-199. “We did a nice job defensively,” Stokes said. “We weren’t great there either in the first half. We were pretty undisciplined. But we did enough to create some turnovers to set us up for scores.”

Schmiesing had a game high 99 yards rushing on 24 carries. “He’s been getting better as it gets colder and colder,” Stokes said. “He’s a tough guy, a competitive freak. We trust him.”

The Wildcats posed for pictures and celebrated with fans following their third regional title in four years. The 2016 Division VII state runners-up are now two wins away from capturing their second title in four years. “We’ve got to get better,” Stokes said. “It’s time to go back to work.”

Score by quarter 1 2 3 4 Total

Minster 8 0 6 6 20

Delphos St Johns 0 0 0 0 0

First Quarter:

MIN - Isaac Schmiesing 10 yd run (Joe Winner pass from Jacob Hoying), 8:26

Third Quarter:

MIN - Austin Brown 45 yd pass from Isaac Schmiesing (kick blocked), 8:25

Fourth Quarter:

MIN - Alex Lehmkuhl 14 yd pass from Jared Huelsman (kick failed), 5:12

Team statistics MIN DSJ

First downs 13 10

Rushes - yards 43-169 22-65

Passing yards 101 134

Comp - att - int 4-7-0 11-24-3

Total yards 270 199

Punts - average 4-27.0 3-28.7

Fumbles - lost 0-0 2-0

Penalties - yards 1-13 3-11

Time of possession 26:39 21:21

Individual statistics

Rushing: Minster, Schmiesing 24-99, Huelsman 15-63, Schmitmeyer 3-8; Ketner 1-(-1); Delphos St. John’s, Wurst 16-54, Brown 2-6, Lindeman 1-6, T Schwinnen 1-3, Reindel 1-1, Musser 1-(-5)

Passing: Minster, Huelsman 3-6-0-56, Schmiesing 1-1-0-45; Delphos St John’s, Wurst 11-24-3-134

Receiving: Minster, Brown 2-52, Lehmkuhl 2-49; Delphos St John’s, Will 2-54, Garrett 2-29, Metcalfe 2-29, C Schwinnen 2-14, T Schwinnen 2-4, Hulihan 1-4