Minster Survives Miscues to Advance over Allen East 14-6

By Bruce Monnin

HARROD — For three quarters, the Minster Wildcats repeatedly shot themselves in the foot on offense and special teams. However, as their defense increasingly tightened their grip on the Allen East Mustang offense, the Minster offense came through with two fourth quarter scores to advance in the playoffs by a 14-6 margin.

“We finally broke through,” said an ebullient Wildcat coach Geron Stokes. “All year we’ve been waiting for someone to screw it up instead of waiting for someone to win it. Finally, in the second half, someone went out and won it! And that’s so cool to see because it’s belief from their work. What a game! That was fun. Survive and advance, baby!”

Coach Stokes may not have thought it was much fun in the first half. Midway through the first quarter, Allen East put together a 12-play, 80-yard drive featuring quarterback Tyler Crum completing six passes before scoring on a fourth down run from one yard out. Minster stole back a little momentum when Conner Albers blocked the extra point to limit the Mustang lead to 6-0.

The Wildcats would finish out the first half by fumbling the ball into the end zone to end one scoring opportunity and fumbling away a punt. After that turnover, Allen Eat reached the Wildcat one-yard line before Clum was stopped for a fourth down loss, thanks to a great defensive effort by Austin Wellman.

It looked to be more of the same as Minster’s first possession of the second half ended in an interception. But the Wildcat defense retrieved possession on the very next play when Nathan Bergman intercepted a Mustang pass in the end zone for a touchback.

The Minster defense would go on to totally lock down Allen East, holding them to 41 yards and forcing three turnovers in the second half.

“Defense was awesome, man,” complimented Stokes. “Fought. Fought. A bunch of senior leaders who had a great week, and you could see their character.”

The Wildcat offense tried out a new weapon, as quarterback Johnny Nixon ran the ball twelve times on the ensuing drive. Unfortunately for Minster, his final rush ended a yard short of the goal line on fourth down and the Wildcats were still down 6-0 as the third period expired.

The Minster defense again stopped the Mustangs cold, this time on a Devan Wuebker interception at the Allen East 25-yard line. The Wildcat offense capitalized this time, with Nixon connecting with Jack Kohne for 19 yards to set up a one-yard Nixon scoring run. Bryan Falk’s extra point gave the Wildcats their first lead of the night, 7-6.

Two plays later, Adam Ketner recovered a Mustang fumble on the Allen East 27-yard line. Nixon soon thereafter connected with Phil Trzaska on a 23-yard scoring pass to increase the Minster lead to 14-6. The Wildcat defense produced one more stop to secure the victory.

Minster ended the night with 304 yards of total offense compared to 210 for Allen East. Nixon completed 12 of 16 passes for 131 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed for career highs of 32 carries for 150 yards and another score.

The win improves Minster’s record to 3-5. The Wildcats will travel to play 7-0 Frankfort Adena in the regional quarterfinals next Saturday. 4-3 Allen East has finished their postseason run, though may play more games to be determined later.

Score by quarter 1 2 3 4 Total

Minster 0 0 0 14 14

Allen East 6 0 0 0 6

First Quarter:

AE – Tyler Clum 1 yd run (kick blocked), 2:32

Fourth Quarter:

MIN – Johnny Nixon 1 yd run (Bryan Falk kick), 7:53

MIN – Phil Trzaska 23 yd pass from Johnny Nixon (Bryan Falk kick), 5:58

Team statistics MIN AE

First downs 17 12

Rushes - yards 41-173 17-44

Passing yards 131 166

Comp - att - int 12-16-1 20-36-2

Total yards 304 210

Punts - average 2-31.0 2-31.0

Fumbles - lost 3-2 1-1

Penalties - yards 2-10 0-0

Time of possession 31:16 16:44

Individual statistics

Rushing: Minster, Nixon 32-150, Albers 8-41, Team 1-(minus 18); Allen East, B Hershberger 11-28, Clum 5-16, Hoel 1-0

Passing: Minster, Nixon 12-16-1-131; Allen East, Clum 20-35-2-166, J Hershberger 0-1-0-0

Receiving: Minster, Kohne 3-53, Wellman 3-42, Albers 3-3, Trzaska 2-24, Wuebker 1-9; Allen East, Crumrine 6-38, B Hershberger 5-54, Maxwell 3-32, J Hershberger 3-21, Newland 1-14, Criblez 1-4, Young 1-3