Minster Dominates Riverside in 51-6 Win

By Bruce Monnin

MINSTER — The Minster Wildcats started the postseason defense of their Division VII state football championship with a first round home game against an overmatched Riverside Pirates squad. Minster did not take the game lightly, as they outscored Riverside 37-0 in the first half, outgaining the Pirates 337 yards to 20 before intermission.

A second half with a running clock ended in a 51-6 Wildcat victory.

“Our seniors said, ‘We’re going to play at this certain level’,” remarked Minster coach Geron Stokes. “We had a phenomenal week of practice with that mentality. Our program has a constant urgency to get better, to just grow from whatever level we are at.”

The Wildcats received the opening kickoff and drove straight down the field, combining runs by Alex Schmitmeyer and Jacob Niemeyer with four complete passes. Niemeyer threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to Schmitmeyer for the opening score. Minster ran a fake on the extra point, with Mike Ketner throwing to Gabe Phillipps to make the score 8-0.

The Wildcat defense then stopped Riverside without giving up a first down, as they would do on all six Pirate possessions of the first half. Five times Riverside was forced to punt. The other possession ended in Ketner’s seventh interception of the season.

A 55-yard pass from Niemeyer to Austin Brown set up the next Minster score, a two-yard run by Schmitmeyer. Niemeyer did the honors on the next Wildcat drive, running it in from four yards out to make the score 22-0 at the end of the first quarter.

Two Minster holding penalties helped stop the Wildcats on downs the first time they had the ball in the second quarter. But they scored their other two possession of the first half, first on a 21-yard touchdown pass from Niemeyer to Cody Frericks. The last Minster score of the half came on a screen pass from Niemeyer to Schmitmeyer, who sliced through an obviously demoralized Riverside defense for a 45-yard score.

Niemeyer completed 13 of 19 first half passes for 218 yards. “It was finally dry,” explained Stokes. “We finally had some decent weather to spread things out and throw it around a little bit. He (Niemeyer) works his butt off. That kid studies as much as anybody and he’s extremely skilled.”

The second half was played with the running clock and was dominated by senior backup tailback Broc Miller, who ran 12 times for 108 yards, including touchdown runs of 14 and 1 yards. “The kid shows up to work every day,” added Stokes.

Riverside was able to score on a Kale Long six-yard touchdown run on the final play of the game to account for the final 51-6 score.

Next week Saturday 8-3 Minster will face second seeded 10-1 Convoy Crestview. Riverside ends its season with a 6-5 record. Last year Minster edged Crestview 35-32 in the second round of the playoffs. “It should be a fun week,” said Stokes with a smile.

Score by quarter 1 2 3 4 Total

Minster 22 15 7 7 51

Riverside 0 0 0 6 6

First Quarter:

MIN - Alex Schmitmeyer 19 yd pass from Jacob Niemeyer (Gabe Philipps pass from Mike Ketner), 7:58

MIN - Alex Schmitmeyer 2 yd run (Bryan Falk kick), 5:51

MIN - Jacob Niemeyer 4 yd run (Bryan Falk kick), 2:02

Second Quarter:

MIN - Cody Frericks 21 yd pass from Jacob Niemeyer (Alex Schmitmeyer rush), 5:23

MIN - Alex Schmitmeyer 45 yd pass from Jacob Niemeyer (Bryan Falk kick), 2:12

Third Quarter:

MIN - Broc Miller 14 yd run (Bryan Falk kick), 5:36

Fourth Quarter:

MIN - Broc Miller 1 yd run (Bryan Falk kick), 7:32

RIV - Kale Long 6 yd run, 0:00

Team statistics MIN RIV

First downs 24 8

Rushes - yards 30-227 29-113

Passing yards 218 23

Comp - att - int 13-19-0 2-9-1

Total yards 445 136

Punts - average 0-0.0 6-31.7

Fumbles - lost 0-0 0-0

Penalties - yards 8-63 7-59

Time of possession 19:14 28:46

Individual statistics

Rushing: Minster, Miller 12-108, Schmitmeyer 10-57, Niemeyer 7-44, Bornhorst 1-18; Riverside, Jackson 4-44, Roby 11-31, Sacks 4-16, J Cotterman 2-12, Long 5-6, Jacobs 2-4, D Cotterman 1-0

Passing: Minster, Niemeyer 13-19-0-218; Riverside, J Cotterman 2-9-1-23

Receiving: Minster, Schmitmeyer 4-90, Ketner 3-15, Heitbrink 2-25, Brown 1-55, Frericks 1-21, Roetgerman 1-9, Boehnlein 1-3; Riverside, Jacobs 2-23