St. Henry Defense Dominates Minster in 34-14 Victory

By Bruce Monnin

ST. HENRY — The St. Henry Redskins had dominated the Minster Wildcats in their matchups the previous two years. This time was more of the same, as the St. Henry defense shut down the Minster offense, while the Redskin offense scored on their first two possessions and never looked back in a 34-14 victory.

Other than for one Zach Niekamp 44-yard touchdown run, St. Henry’s vaunted rushing attack was held in check in the first half, gaining only 35 yards on their other 15 carries. But quarterback Sam Lefeld took up the slack, completing 8 of 10 first half passes for 93 yards.

“Traditionally, since Stokes has been at Minster, they have put together really good run defenses,” explained St. Henry coach Brad Luthman. “We knew we were not going to be able to just line up and pound it through them. Our quarterback put in his best week of practice and came out and had his best game, and he was one of the biggest reasons we won this game today.”

While holding the Wildcats to just five first downs and 95 first half yards, the Redskins took the lead on their opening two possessions. Midway through the first quarter, after three Lefeld pass completions, Niekamp broke through the left side of the Minster line and rambled 44 yards for the opening score. The second drive featured a 34-yard pass to Jay Knapke before Niekamp finished the drive with a one-yard scoring run.

The Wildcat offense would penetrate Redskin territory twice in the second quarter, but St. Henry’s defense stopped them cold each time, leaving the Redskins ahead 13-0 at the break.

St. Henry took the second half kickoff and Lefeld immediately connected on 21-yard passes to both Jay Knapke and Sam Hartings. Niekamp once again claimed the score with a one-yard run and the lead grew to 19-0.

Lefeld helped the redskins defensively on the next series, picking off a Minster pass. Noah Enneking soon returned the favor for the Wildcats, but St. Henry’s Dusty Lange also got into the interception act a play later, leaving the score 19-0 score after three periods.

Niekamp opened the fourth quarter with a 75-yard romp through the middle of the Minster defense, followed a play later by K.J. Jacobs running 10 yards for the score, increasing the lead to 26-0. In the final three minutes, Alex Schmitmeyer would cap a Minster drive against the Redskin reserves with a three-yard touchdown, Jacobs would run 73 yards for a score against Minster’s backups, and the Wildcats’ Brendan Bornhorst would return a kickoff 89 yards for the final score in a 34-14 St. Henry win.

“Credit to the entire team because compared to last week, Niekamp didn’t get many touches in the first half, so he was fresh in the third quarter,” added Luthman. “Our offensive line started leaning on them, and Zach ran through some arm tackles.”

“They were good. We were terrible, and we have to get a lot better,” summarized Wildcat coach Geron Stokes. “We just don’t want to bang. We just don’t want contact enough, like good teams do.”

St. Henry’s record improves to 5-2, and next week they visit the 3-4 Fort Recovery Indians. “It is a big rivalry game, in terms of importance to our season,” said Luthman. “We have long memories in terms of what happened last year and the way our season ended.”

Minster’s record is now also 5-2, and the Wildcats return home to host 7-0 Marion Local.

Score by quarter 1 2 3 4 Total

St. Henry 7 6 6 15 34

Minster 0 0 0 14 14

First Quarter:

SH – Zach Niekamp 44 yd run (Ethan Thieman kick), 6:20

Second Quarter:

SH – Zach Niekamp 1 yd run (kick blocked), 11:07

Third Quarter:

SH – Zach Niekamp 1 yd run (run failed), 8:24

Fourth Quarter:

SH – K.J. Jacobs 10 yd run (Ethan Thieman kick), 11:24

MIN – Alex Schmitmeyer 3 yd run (Bryan Falk kick), 2:28

SH – K.J. Jacobs 73 yd run (Owen Lefeld run), 1:30

MIN – Brendan Bornhorst 89 yd kickoff return (Bryan Falk kick), 1:13

Team statistics SH MIN

First downs 15 13

Rushes – yards 32-292 27-100

Passing yards 178 150

Comp - att – int 13-19-1 14-23-2

Total yards 470 250

Punts – average 3-35.3 5-38.4

Fumbles – lost 0-0 0-0

Penalties – yards 3-15 4-35

Time of possession 24:45 23:15

Individual statistics

Rushing: St. Henry, Niekamp 21-192, Jacobs 6-98, Lefeld 2-3, Fishbaugh 3-(-1); Minster, Schmitmeyer 15-62, Niemeyer 9-32, Miller 3-6

Passing: St. Henry, Lefeld 13-19-1-178; Minster, Niemeyer 14-23-2-150

Receiving: St. Henry, Knapke 5-77, Hartings 3-66, Thieman 2-12, Froning 1-19, Jacobs 1-4, Fishbaugh 1-0; Minster, Ketner 4-51, Boehnlein 4-42, Frericks 3-16, Brown 1-19, Heitbrink 1-12, Schmitmeyer 1-10