Big Plays Key New Bremen 35-7 Victory over Minster

By Bruce Monnin

MINSTER  -  Sometime the statistics tell the story of a game.  And sometimes they utterly fail to reflect the actual game result.  The New Bremen Cardinals were outgained by over 60 yards by the Minster Wildcats, who ran almost double the plays as New Bremen, but the Cardinals used a bevy of big plays to pull away for a 35-7 victory.

New Bremen looked as if they were going to dominate the game early.  On their opening possession, the Cardinals drove into Wildcat territory before being faced with a fourth down and nine yards to go.  David Homan calmly connected with Nick Alig for a 22-yard completion, and then Hunter Schaefer scored from 12 yards out on the next play for the early 7-0 lead.

Minster went three and out after the New Bremen defensive line registered one of their six sacks on the night, and the Cardinals needed only three plays to go 52 yards, scoring on a Colten Muether 17-yard run to increase the lead to 14-0.

While the New Bremen offense looked effortless at that point, it stalled for the rest of the half.  Minster would drive the ball into Cardinal territory three times in the second quarter, but were stopped twice on fourth down plays and missed a 41-yard Brogan Stephey field goal try just wide left as the half expired.

The game was decided at the start of the second half.  Minster received the kickoff and put together a seven minute, 66-yard drive to the New Bremen 12-yard line.  A slant pass looked wide open for a Wildcat touchdown, but the ball was deflected at the line of scrimmage, allowing David Homan to intercept the pass at the two-yard line and return it 98 yards to increase the lead to 21-0.

“It was a huge turning point,” stated New Bremen coach Chris Schmidt.  “Coming out of the locker room they put a great drive together and we needed to make a big play.  Nolan Kuenning got a hand on the pass and David (Homan) was in the right spot.  That was huge.  Who knows if that becomes a one score game?”

“Our kids are playing as hard as they can possibly play,” added Minster coach Seth Whiting.  “They’re playing as hard as they can possibly go, and they’re not getting any breaks.  Then fatigue sets in and there are little breakdowns here and there.  There were some catastrophic issues tonight with tipped balls.”

New Bremen would score two more times on big plays by Homan.  Late in the third quarter he sliced through the Wildcat defense for a 29-yard scoring run, and in the fourth quarter he went around the right end to outrun the Minster defense for a 64-yard score.  In between, the Wildcats scored on a 11-yard run by Stephey.

“That’s great.  But you can’t always rely on just hitting the big plays,” added Schmidt.  “I’ll take those (big plays), but we have to execute better.  Credit to the Minster kids, they played hard tonight.  They played harder and smarter for more stretches of the game than we did.” 

Homan was the leading rusher on the night with 116 yards and two touchdowns on just seven carries, while throwing for another 97 yards.  Austin Wellman led Minster with 84 yards on 14 totes.  Stephey completed 18 passes for 188 yards, but two tipped pass interceptions by the Cardinals prevented any Minster scores through the air.

Next week the 5-2 Cardinals (3-2 MAC) go on the road to face the 7-0 Marion Local Flyers (5-0 MAC).  The 1-6 Wildcats (0-4 MAC) will play at 6-1 Coldwater (4-1 MAC). 

Score by quarter            1 2 3 4 Total

New Bremen                 14 0          14 7 35

Minster                         0         0          0         7          7

First Quarter:

NB – Hunter Schaefer 12 yd run (Owen Gabel kick), 5:58

NB – Colten Muether 17 yd run (Owen Gabel kick), 2:55

Third Quarter:

NB – David Homan 98 yd interception return (Owen Gabel kick), 4:58

NB – David Homan 29 yd run (Owen Gabel kick), 0:47

Fourth Quarter:

MIN – Brogan Stephey 11 yd run (Brogan Stephey kick), 2:53

NB – David Homan 64 yd run (Owen Gabel kick), 1:19

Team statistics             NB                    MIN

First downs                   13                     23

Rushes - yards              26-197              45-167

Passing yards               97                     188

Comp - att - int              7-11-0               18-27-2

Total yards                    294                   355

Punts - average             3-34.0               3-32.0

Fumbles - lost               1-1                    0-0

Penalties - yards           4-30                  6-60

Time of possession       16:13                31:47

Individual statistics

Rushing:  New Bremen, Homan 7-116, Muether 4-39, Schaefer 8-30, Krauss 2-22, Bambauer 3-20, Team 2-(minus 30); Minster, Wellman 14-84, Stephey 30-80, Schmiesing 1-3

Passing:  New Bremen, Homan 7-11-0-97; Minster, Stephey 18-27-2-188

Receiving:  New Bremen, Alig 4-76, Bergman 2-15, Puthoff 1-6; Minster, Kohne 7-70, Wuebker 5-68, Couse 2-21, Fortman 1-13, Niemeyer 1-11, Wellman 1-4, Kies 1-1