Minster Runs Over and Intercepts Fort Recovery in 50-22 Win

by Bruce Monnin

MINSTER – The Minster Wildcats used a dominant first half performance to grab an early 36-8 lead on the Fort Recovery Indians, then matched the Indians in the second half to secure to final 50-22 victory in this first round playoff matchup.

The initial half featured the return of Brogan Stephey, who had missed the previous game with an injury. He completed seven passes for 160 yards and three touchdowns, plus ran for another score in his return to action. In the second half, the Wildcats turned to Connor Schmiesing, who came into the game with just 49 rushing yards on 21 carries. Schmiesing ended this game with 206 yards and two touchdowns on 24 carries.

“Very happy with the way our offensive line played,” stated Minster coach Seth Whiting. “We really challenged them to pick up their level of physicalness. We didn’t run him (Schmiesing) much all year,” continued Whiting. “He did a nice job, but it’s easy to run when you have holes like that.”

On the defensive end, James Niemeyer intercepted a Fort Recovery pass in each of the first three quarters. The third takeaway came on a diving grab of a deep pass. “He caught the one interception one-handed on his back,” complimented Whiting. “It hit the bottom of my hand and I pinned it to my helmet,” added Niemeyer.

The Wildcats took the opening kickoff and needed only six plays to cover 60 yards for the score, with Stephey running it in from six yards out. The Indians retook the lead one play later. Cale Rammel fired a pass deep over the middle to Troy Homan who finished the 58-yard play in the end zone. Another pass from Rammel to Homan for the two-point conversion gave Fort Recovery the 8-7 lead.

Minster responded with an eight-play drive capped off when Stephey found Niemeyer over the middle for a 36-yard score. Niemeyer’s first interception of the night gave the ball back to the Wildcats deep in Indian territory, and a 20-yard pass from Stephey to Chase Couse made the score 21-8 after one period.

Midway through the second quarter, Minster put together a 58-yard drive consisting of seven running plays. Schmiesing broke a run over the left side of the line and outsprinted the defense to the pylon for a 16-yard touchdown. On the Wildcats’ last possession of the half, Stephey threw a screen pass to Schmiesing, who weaved his way through the Fort Recovery defense for 40 yards to make the halftime score 36-8.

The second half saw both teams score twice. Midway through the third quarter, the Indians put together an eleven-play scoring drive with Homan scoring on a 13-yard pass from Rammel. The answering Minster drive featured seven rushes for 57 yards by Schmiesing, including the touchdown, making the score 43-14.

The Indians struck again, this time via a 17-yard strike from Rammel to Reece Guggenbiller. Minster ended the scoring with a 15-yard touchdown pass from Stephey to Devan Wuebker.

Fort Recovery’s rushing attack was led by Ethan Hartnagel’s 72 yards on 14 carries. Rammel threw for 151 yards, with Homan catching five balls for 103 yards and two touchdowns.

It was a busy week for the Whiting household, as his wife gave birth to Trace Quinton Whiting on Sunday. “I have an unbelievable wife,” praised Whiting. “Most head coaches will tell you it is hard to have this job without having an incredibly understanding wife. When my wife started having contractions on Saturday night, she said, ‘This is great. This shouldn’t disrupt anything practice-wise.”

The win pushes Minster’s record to 7-4, and on Friday the Wildcats travel to face 9-2 Mechanicsburg in a rematch of their classic 2014 double overtime playoff battle. Fort Recovery ends their season with a 3-8 record.

Score by quarter 1 2 3 4 Total

Minster 21 15 0 14 50

Fort Recovery 8 0 6 8 22

First Quarter:

MIN – Brogan Stephey 6 yd run (Brogan Stephey kick), 8:58

FR – Troy Homan 58 yd pass from Cale Rammel (Troy Homan pass from Cale Rammel), 8:41

MIN – James Niemeyer 34 yd pass from Brogan Stephey (Brogan Stephey kick), 4:28

MIN – Chase Couse 20 yd pass from Brogan Stephey (Brogan Stephey kick), 2:36

Second Quarter:

MIN – Connor Schmiesing 16 yd run (Brogan Stephey kick), 4:53

MIN – Connor Schmiesing 40 yd pass from Brogan Stephey (Charlie Schmiesing pass from Brogan Stephey), 1:57

Third Quarter:

FR – Troy Homan 13 yd pass from Cale Rammel (pass failed), 3:13

Fourth Quarter:

MIN – Connor Schmiesing 4 yd run (Brogan Stephey kick), 10:05

FR – Reece Guggenbiller 17 yd pass from Cale Rammel (Reece Guggenbiller pass from Cale Rammel), 5:51

MIN – Devan Wuebker 15 yd pass from Brogan Stephey (Brogan Stephey kick), 1:17

Team statistics MIN FR

First downs 22 17

Rushes - yards 40-276 33-175

Passing yards 206 151

Comp - att - int 9-15-1 9-20-3

Total yards 482 326

Punts - average 1-36.0 2-33.0

Fumbles - lost 1-0 0-0

Penalties - yards 4-25 0-0

Time of possession 26:43 21:17

Individual statistics

Rushing: Minster, Schmiesing 24-206, Stephey 11-52, Bergman 5-18; Fort Recovery, Hartnagel 14-72, Rammel 10-41, Kaiser 3-35, Grisez 6-27

Passing: Minster, Stephey 9-15-1-206; Fort Recovery, Rammel 9-20-3-151

Receiving: Minster, Niemeyer 3-71, Wuebker 3-59, Couse 2-36, Schmiesing 1-40; Fort Recovery, Homan 5-103, Guggenbiller 4-48