Minster Intercepts Covington’s Hopes, 39-26

By Bruce Monnin

MINSTER — In a game where Minster Wildcat quarterback Jacob Niemeyer threw for 266 yards (257 in the first half) and Alex Schmitmeyer rushed for 151 yards and four touchdowns, the star of the game was a defensive back. The Covington Buccaneers threw 30 passes on the night, and Mike Ketner broke up four of those attempts and intercepted three others.

“He’s our one guy who is playing really disciplined football,” commented Minster coach Geron Stokes about Ketner. “He’s getting rewarded because of that. That’s nice to see.”

Covington was first on the scoreboard, needing only four plays to drive 43 yards on their opening drive. Brayden Wiggins scored from five yards out for the early 6-0 lead.

The Wildcats’ next drive appeared to end in a 48-yard touchdown pass to Austin Brown, but a holding penalty nullified the play and led to a punt. But Ketner then made his first big play, grabbing a bobbled Buccaneer pass and returning it 32 yards. Schmitmeyer than ran for ten yards in the next two plays to give Minster a 7-6 lead.

The Wildcats came out on fire in the second period. On a third down and 26 to go, Niemeyer connected with Brown on a 63-yard bomb, then on the next play found August Boehnlein for a 21-yard touchdown to increase the advantage to 14-6.

A little over two minutes later, Niemeyer ran for 28 yards, then threw to Ketner for 49 more. Schmitmeyer ran it in from six yards out for another score. Another two minutes after that, Minster had a two-play scoring drive consisting of a nine-yard pass to Boehnlein and a 40-yard deep strike to Trent Roetgerman, making the score 27-6.

Covington answered with an eleven play, 71-yard drive capped by a Cade Schmelzer one yard scoring plunge to close the gap to 27-12. Minster looked like they would answer but were stopped at the three-yard line as time ran out in the half.

The third quarter saw two Covington drives stopped by Wildcat interceptions, one by Ketner and another by Roetgerman, who returned the ball 28 yards to the Buccaneer 27-yard line. Schmitmeyer was again the beneficiary, scoring from six yards out to increase the lead to 33-12.

After Ketner’s third interception of the night, Minster put the game away with a ten play, 74-yard drive. Schmitmeyer again ran six-yard for the score to salt away the game. Covington added two late touchdowns against the Minster second string defense for the final 39-26 tally.

Next week Friday Minster (2-0) starts their MAC campaign at home against Fort Recovery. 0-2 Covington travels to play Fort Loramie.

Score by quarter 1 2 3 4 Total

Minster 7 20 6 6 39

Covington 6 6 0 14 26

First Quarter:

COV – Brayden Wiggins 5 yd run (kick failed), 8:26

MIN – Alex Schmitmeyer 1 yd run (Bryan Falk kick), 3:52

Second Quarter:

MIN – August Boehnlein 21 yd pass from Jacob Niemeyer (pass failed), 11:30

MIN – Alex Schmitmeyer 6 yd run (Bryan Falk kick), 9:36

MIN – Trent Roetgerman 40 yd pass from Jacob Niemeyer (Bryan Falk kick), 7:18

COV – Cade Schmelzer 1 yd run (run failed), 2:30

Third Quarter:

MIN – Alex Schmitmeyer 6 yd run (kick failed), 0:28

Fourth Quarter:

MIN – Alex Schmitmeyer 6 yd run (kick failed), 5:53

COV – Parker Dysinger 29 yd pass from Cade Schmelzer (Gage Kerrigan run), 3:49

COV – Kleyton Maschino 49 yd pass from Cade Schmelzer (pass failed), 1:07

Team statistics MIN COV

First downs 16 17

Rushes - yards 37-165 27-109

Passing yards 266 225

Comp - att - int 12-17-0 19-30-4

Total yards 431 334

Punts - average 4-31.0 3-35.0

Fumbles - lost 1-0 0-0

Penalties - yards 5-57 2-10

Time of possession 23:29 24:31

Individual statistics

Rushing: Minster, Schmitmeyer 23-151, Niemeyer 9-20, A Ketner 3-(-4), Team 2-(-2); Covington, Wiggin 11-53, Maschino 1-26, Schmelzer 6-16, Kerrigan 5-9, Alexander 3-7, Cates 1(-2)

Passing: Minster, Niemeyer 12-17-0-266; Covington, Schmelzer 19-30-4-225

Receiving: Minster, Schmitmeyer 3-40, Brown 2-78, M Ketner 2-51, Roetgerman 2-49, Boehnlein 2-30, Heitbrink 1-18; Covington, Cates 4-52, Dysinger 4-48, Schaffer 4-25, Maschino 2-52, Cooper 2-38, Alexander 2-8, Weer 1-2