Minster Rolls Over Parkway 62-20

by Bruce Monnin

ROCKFORD — Both the Minster Wildcats and the Parkway Panthers came into this game looking to generate a little momentum ahead of next week’s first round playoff games. The Minster offense showed they were ready for the postseason, as it scored a touchdown on each of its first nine possessions to overwhelm the Parkway 62-20.

“We’ve been doing this in practice for a couple of weeks now,” said Wildcat coach Geron Stokes. “It just hadn’t showed up on Friday nights yet. We won the turnover battle for the first time all year, which is critical for us. We were 100% in the red zone, which is a sign of a tougher team. We were good on third down on both sides of the ball, which is also a sign of a tougher team.”

The tone of the game was set on the opening play from scrimmage. The Panthers fumbled on a pitch play and Minster’s Evan Dorsten recovered the ball on the Parkway 22-yard line. Three plays later Johnny Nixon scored on a ten-yard run.

On their next possession, the Wildcat starters had their longest drive of the game, needing eight plays to cover 53 yards. A 25-yard pass from Nixon to Austin Wellman, who did a great job of screening his defender away from the ball until the pass arrived, made the score 14-0.

The Panthers responded with a 10-play drive of their own. After converting a fourth down, Elijah Rich found Liam Ferroggiaro for a 25-yard completion to the Minster five-yard line. Ferroggiaro followed with a five-yard touchdown run to reduce the deficit to 14-7 after the first quarter.

The scoring came fast and furious in the second period. The Wildcats started with a Nixon one yard run to increase the lead to 21-7, but Parkway answered with a Ferroggiaro 68-yard run around the right end to again make it a one score game, 21-14.

Minster took over the rest of the half. Benefitting from an interception by Phil Trzaska and a fumble recovery by Zach Fortman, the Wildcat offense scored four more times before intermission. Nixon ran it in from nine yards out, and threw three touchdown passes, a 33-yarder to Adam Ketner, a 45-yarder to Jack Kohne and a 15-yarder to Trzaska.

With Minster ahead 49-14, the running clock was in force for the second half. Minster opened with a ten-yard touchdown run by Nixon, with Bryan Falk’s eighth extra point kick on the night tying a school record Falk had previously set two years ago.

The rest of the game saw backups for both sides. Dominic Miller rushed nine consecutive plays for 70 yards and a Minster touchdown early in the fourth quarter. Logan Green ended the game running five consecutive plays for 53 yards and a 15-yard touchdown to account for the final 62-20 score.

Minster ended the night with 506 yards of total offense compared to 229 for Parkway. Nixon completed 14 of 17 passes for 218 yards and four touchdowns. He also rushed for 80 yards on 7 carries and four more touchdowns. Ketner was the leading receiver with 4 catches for 86 yards and a score. Albers led all rushers with 95 yards on 12 carries.

The win improves Minster’s record to 2-4. The Wildcats will host 0-6 Delphos Jefferson in the first round of the playoffs next Saturday. The 0-6 Panthers travel to face 3-3 St. Bernard-Elmwood Place to begin their postseason run.

“We’re ready to go,” added Stokes about next week’s start of the playoffs. “I told our kids it’s time to start playing good football.”

Score by quarter 1 2 3 4 Total

Minster Wildcats 14 35 7 6 62

Parkway Panthers 7 7 0 6 20

First Quarter:

MIN – Johnny Nixon 10 yd run (Bryan Falk kick), 10:45

MIN – Austin Wellman 25 yd pass from Johnny Nixon (Bryan Falk kick), 6:58

PW – Liam Ferroggiaro 5 yd run (Zach Hawk kick), 1:23

Second Quarter:

MIN – Johnny Nixon 1 yd run (Bryan Falk kick), 11:45

PW – Liam Ferroggiaro 68 yd run (Zach Hawk kick), 10:44

MIN – Adam Ketner 33 yd pass from Johnny Nixon (Bryan Falk kick), 8:16

MIN – Johnny Nixon 9 yd run (Bryan Falk kick), 5:03

MIN – Jack Kohne 45 yd pass from Johnny Nixon (Bryan Falk kick), 2:31

MIN – Phil Trzaska 15 yd pass from Johnny Nixon (Bryan Falk kick), 1:59

Third Quarter:

MIN – Johnny Nixon 10 yd run (Bryan Falk kick), 9:24

Fourth Quarter:

MIN – Dominic Miller 3 yd run (kick failed), 11:43

PW – Logan Green 15 yd run (kick failed), 0:30

Team statistics MIN PW

First downs 25 11

Rushes - yards 39-288 20-138

Passing yards 218 91

Comp - att - int 14-17-0 11-18-1

Total yards 506 229

Punts - average 0-0.0 4-30.0

Fumbles - lost 0-0 2-2

Penalties - yards 3-25 2-20

Time of possession 27:52 20:08

Individual statistics

Rushing: Minster, Albers 12-95, Nixon 7-80, Miller 9-70, Wellman 3-25, Couse 5-16, Sharp 3-20; Parkway, Ferroggiaro 2-73, Green 7-36, Rich 7-13, Etzcorn 4-(minus 4)

Passing: Minster, Nixon 14-17-0-218; Parkway, Rich 11-16-1-91, Smith 0-2-0-0

Receiving: Minster, Ketner 4-86, Wellman 4-43, Trzaska 3-40, Wuebker 2-4, Kohne 1-45; Parkway, Rogers 5-32, Felver 3-22, Ferroggiaro 2-36, Etzcorn 1-1