Minster Overcomes Slow Start to Defeat St. Henry 31-12

By Bruce Monnin

MINSTER - In a game where both the St. Henry Redskins and the Minster Wildcats had trouble finding a rhythm early, Minster the seized momentum late in the second quarter and continued on for a 31-12 victory. Eighteen accepted penalties for 156 yards slowed both offenses, as well as some timely defensive plays.

Minster earned the first big break of the game when Connor Schmiesing intercepted a St. Henry pass at midfield and returned it to the Redskin 37-yard line. The subsequent drive was stopped at the 18-yard line, and the St. Henry special teams blocked the 35-yard field goal attempt to keep the score knotted at zero.

On the Wildcats’ next series, Elijah Horstman jarred loose a fumble which was recovered by Logan Dehan at the Minster 15-yard line. Curtis Puthoff rushed for five yards then scored from ten yards out to give the Redskins a 6-0 lead.

Neither team could score on their next two drives. At this point, St. Henry had held Minster to just three rushing yards on eight carries.

“We could not find a rhythm, and we were making mistakes we hadn’t made in a few weeks,” explained Minster coach Seth Whiting, “St. Henry is big, tough and physical, everything we thought they were going to be. They were not going to allow us to run the ball, as much as I was stubborn and tried to.”

Midway through the second quarter, Minster turned to the aerial assault. Brogan Stephey completed four of six passes for 55 yards on the drive, which Justin Bergman finished out with a two-yard scoring run.

“We had some protection issues in the first quarter, and we were able to make quick adjustments to correct them,” added Whiting. “The line responded well after that, and we were able to throw the ball.”

The Wildcats fielded a punt with 1:55 remaining in the half and went back to the air. The big play was a 48-yard completion from Stephey to Chase Couse. Couse had been well out of bounds before catching the pass, but the officials ruled he had been pushed out of bounds and had reestablished himself in the field of play before receiving the pass. A Stephey one yard run made the score 14-6 at the half.

After three punts started the third quarter, Stephey turned to his favorite receiver, James Niemeyer. Niemeyer caught four passes on the drive, including the 13-yard touchdown which increased the Minster lead 21-6.

St. Henry responded quickly with 42-yard pass from Puthoff to Nolan Kunkler. Harrison Wendel started the fourth quarter with a one-yard scoring run to cut the deficit to 21-12 after the two-point conversion attempt from broken up by Niemeyer.

Minster put the game away on their next possession with a little bit of flim-flam. At the Redskin 17-yard line, Stephey handed off to Niemeyer on an end around. Niemeyer pitched back to Couse on an apparent reverse, and Couse threw a touchdown pass to Stephey. It was the Wildcat version of the Philly Special.

With a 28-12 lead, the Minster defense stopped St. Henry’s last chance at a comeback with a Noah Schwieterman interception. The Wildcats would later tack on a 35-yard field goal by Stephey for the final 31-12 score.

The Wildcats would end the game with just 50 yards rushing but threw for 334 yards. Stephey complete 20 passes, the ninth most in a single game in school history, while his 317 passing yards were the sixth most in school history. He also pulled off the triple of passing for, rushing for and receiving a touchdown. The top two receivers were Niemeyer with seven catches for 87 yards and Couse with 5 receptions for 118 yards.

Puthoff led the statistical way for St. Henry with 73 rushing yards and another 133 yards through the air.

Minster’s record is now 4-2, and they travel to play the 2-4 Parkway Panthers next Friday. St. Henry’s record drops to 1-5, and the Redskins will host 5-1 New Bremen.

Score by quarter 1 2 3 4 Total

Minster 0 14 7 10 31

St. Henry 6 0 0 6 12

First Quarter:

SH – Curtis Puthoff 10 yd run (kick failed), 2:12

Second Quarter:

MIN – Justin Bergman 2 yd run (Brogan Stephey kick), 4:50

MIN – Brogan Stephey 1 yd run (Brogan Stephey kick), 1:14

Third Quarter:

MIN – James Niemeyer 13 yd pass from Brogan Stephey (Brogan Stephey kick), 2:19

Fourth Quarter:

SH – Harrison Wendel 1 yd run (pass failed), 11:41

MIN – Brogan Stephey 17 yd pass from Chase Couse (Brogan Stephey kick), 9:08

MIN – Brogan Stephey 35 yd field goal, 5:25

Team statistics MIN SH

First downs 16 12

Rushes – yards 27-50 28-114

Passing yards 334 164

Comp - att – int 21-34-0 14-26-2

Total yards 384 278

Punts – average 5-31.4 5-36.0

Fumbles – lost 1-1 0-0

Penalties – yards 8-70 10-86

Time of possession 24:14 23:46

Individual statistics

Rushing: Minster, Stephey 15-26, Bergman 8-20, Keller 1-3, Schmiesing 1-0, Frimel 2-0; St. Henry, Puthoff 10-69, Wendel 9-23, Dehan 6-12, Horstman 2-10, Broering 1-(minus 2)

Passing: Minster, Stephey 20-32-0-318, Couse 1-1-0-17, Richard 0-1-0-0; St. Henry, Puthoff 11-23-2-132, Broering 3-3-0-31

Receiving: Minster, Niemeyer 7-87, Couse 5-119, Wuebker 3-43, Co. Schmiesing 3-32, Ch. Schmiesing 1-26, Stephey 1-17, Bergman 1-11; St. Henry, Wendel 4-23, Kunkler 3-96, Stammen 2-24, Dehan 3-3, Boeckman 1-10, Schwieterman 1-7