St. Henry Cashes In On Opportunities, Beats Minster 28-7

By Bruce Monnin

ST. HENRY — The entire contest between the St. Henry Redskins and the Minster Wildcats could be encapsulated by each team’s opening drive. St. Henry received the opening kickoff and drove 80 yards in 12 plays, scoring on a 25-yard pass from Bryce Brookhark to Carter Ontrop, the first of four scoring tosses by the Redskins on the night.

Minster took their turn with the ball and put together a 14-play drive. After reaching the St. Henry three-yard line, they could only gain one more yard against a tenacious Redskin defense and turned the ball over on downs.

St. Henry crossed into Wildcat territory six times and scored on four of those opportunities. Minster also reached the Redskin half of the field six times, but only scored on their final possession of the game in a 28-7 St. Henry victory.

Midway into the second quarter, the Redskins struck for a second time. Brookhart threw deep into the end zone, where Bennett Gels outjumped an outstretched Wildcat defender for a 30-yard score.

“I’m really proud of the way Carter Ontrop and Bennett Gels are growing up,” explained St. Henry coach Brad Luthman. “Bennett wasn’t necessarily open on that jump ball we gave him, but he went up and got it. He’s done that two weeks in a row now.”

The half ended in a flurry of turnovers. Casey Bruening started things off by intercepting a Minster pass. A few plays later, Nathan Bergman returned the favor by taking away a Redskin toss. Two plays afterwards, Tyler Dehan stepped in front of a Wildcat receiver to claim possession at the Minster 12-yard line. On the following play, Brookhart connected with Dehan in the endzone to make the score 21-0 at the half.

“It was big to have a senior receiver pick one off, and then go right back and make the big catch,” praised Luthman. “Tyler hasn’t played football for four years, since eighth grade. We’re pretty happy to have him back out.”

Minster appeared to get back on track to start the second half. A 35-yard completion from Johnny Nixon to Austin Wellman and a 17-yard pass to Isaiah Slonkosky brought the pigskin to the St. Henry five-yard line. On the next play the Redskins forced a fumble which stopped another Wildcat opportunity.

Then St. Henry administered the death blow on a 91-yard touchdown pass from Brookhart to Ontrop, extending the lead to 28-0. Minster would eventually score on a 23-yard pass from Nixon to Jack Kohne with 31 seconds remaining in the game for the final 28-7 margin.

The Wildcats outgained St. Henry in total yardage, 287-278. However, the Redskins forced four turnovers while only committing one of their own, while also stopping Minster on three of their five fourth-down plays.

“In my mind, Minster’s not a bad football team,” added Luthman. “Just the first three weeks they’ve shot themselves in the foot a lot. We capitalized on them, which I’m very happy about.”

K.J. Jacobs was the Redskins leading rusher, gaining 36 yards in seven carries before leaving the game with a mild ankle injury, while Conner Albers countered with 50 yards for Minster on 18 carries.

Through the air, sophomore Brookhart completed 13 of his 19 passes for 233 yards and four touchdowns. His favorite receiver, Ontrop, garnered six catches for 149 yards and two scores. Nixon also had a fair night throwing, completing 16 of 25 passes for 217 yards and one touchdown.

St. Henry’s record is now 2-1, and they will travel next week to take on 3-0 Marion Local. Minster’s record drops to 0-3, and the Wildcats return home to face 1-2 Delphos St. John’s.

Score by quarter 1 2 3 4 Total

St. Henry 7 14 7 0 28

Minster 0 0 0 7 7

First Quarter:

SH – Carter Ontrop 25 yd pass from Bryce Brookhart (Logan Lefeld kick), 6:20

Second Quarter:

SH – Bennett Gels 30 yd pass from Bryce Brookhart (Logan Lefeld kick), 2:09

SH – Tyler Dehan 12 yd pass from Bryce Brookhart (Logan Lefeld kick), 0:17

Third Quarter:

SH – Carter Ontrop 91 yd pass from Bryce Brookhart (Logan Lefeld kick), 8:16

Fourth Quarter:

MIN – Jack Kohne 23 yd pass from Johnny Nixon (Bryan Falk kick), 0:31

Team statistics SH MIN

First downs 10 15

Rushes – yards 25-45 28-70

Passing yards 233 217

Comp - att – int 13-19-1 16-25-2

Total yards 278 287

Punts – average 4-31.2 2-28.0

Fumbles – lost 0-0 2-2

Penalties – yards 5-27 6-47

Time of possession 22:03 25:57