Fort Loramie Repeats Victory over Minster

Advances to Regional Championship with 35-19 Win

By Bruce Monnin

SIDNEY - Back in the first week of this football season, the Fort Loramie Redskins used big plays to defeat the Minster Wildcats 39-27. The pattern repeated as Fort Loramie again used big plays, secured critical defensive stops and consistently cashed in on their own scoring opportunities. The Redskins advanced past Minster to the Region 28 championship game with a 35-19 victory.

“That’s kind of been the story of this team,” explained Fort Loramie coach Spencer Wells. “Defensively we’ve gotten key stops when we need them. Offensively we’ve finished drives. Proud of our guys and how we battled and found a way. Credit to Minster, they have a lot to be proud of, they had a helluva season and they have a bright future ahead.”

“We had opportunities, but that’s football. Stuff happens,” lamented Minster coach Seth Whiting. “Our kids played hard, but we had some uncharacteristic penalties tonight and shot ourselves in the foot on a couple of things.”

Both offenses had quick starts to the game. After receiving the opening kickoff, the Wildcats rushed six times for 73 yards, with Brogan Stephey scoring on a 29-yard scramble through the middle of the Redskin defense for an early 7-0 lead.

The Redskins Christian McGee reversed the momentum with a 49-yard kickoff return, Caleb Maurer added a 34-yard quarterback draw to reach the Minster two-yard line, but the Wildcat defense then threw Fort Loramie backwards until it was fourth down from the six-yard line. The Redskins eschewed the field goal, and Caleb Maurer connected with Logan Eilerman in the end zone to tie the game at 7-7. It was but the first of Eilerman’s seven receptions for 133 yards.

“That just kind of broke the ice,” stated Wells. “After a good play to get down there, it was good to punch it in.”

Minster drove inside the Redskin 30-yard line on their next two possessions, but were halted by the Fort Loramie defense each time on fourth down plays. The Redskins then took a 14-7 lead early in the second quarter when Maurer broke free on a 47-yard quarterback draw out of an empty backfield formation right through the heart of the Wildcat defense.

With just 45 seconds remaining in the half, it was the turn of Wildcat defense to stop Fort Loramie on downs when Ian Homan almost took a pass right out of Maurer’s hand. Stephey then went to work in the two-minute drill, completing a 30-yard pass to Connor Schmiesing, another for 18 yards to James Niemeyer, and finding Schmiesing for 18 yards in the end zone with just six seconds on the clock. The extra point was missed after a bad snap, and the Redskins retained a 14-13 lead at intermission.

The Redskins received the ball to start the second half and used the opportunity to seize control of the game. McGee got things started with a 40-yard kickoff return. Two plays later, Maurer rolled to the right side of the field and evaded Minster’s pass rush, then launched a deep pass back to Eilerman who was 46 yards downfield in the left side of the endzone. His catch increased the lead to 21-13.

After a Wildcat punt, Caleb Maurer connected with Max Maurer for a 35-yard flea-flicker. This set up a later four-yard scoring run by Caleb and Fort Loramie was ahead 28-13 just four and a half minutes into the half.

The Wildcats were not done, however, and answered with a 54-yard scoring drive. After some confusion where the officials had the down wrong was resolved, Stephey scored on a four-yard run. A failed two-point conversion pass, however, left Minster still down by two scores, 28-19. Little noted at the time, Stephey’s score gave him 173 points scored on the season, one better than the school record of 172 points held by Jeff Stucke in the 1989 state championship year.

Everything broke the Redskins’ way in the fourth quarter. After driving to the Wildcat nine-yard line, Fort Loramie ran a reverse pass which was sniffed out by the Minster defense. As McGee was in the process of being sacked by Charlie Schmiesing, he heaved the ball into the end zone. Despite being triple covered, Caleb Maurer came down with the reception to expand the lead to 35-19.

Minster would immediately drive to the Redskin five-yard line but fumbled the ball away to end the threat. The next time the Wildcats had the ball, a late decision to punt on fourth down led to a bad snap and a 15-yard loss and a change of possession. Minster had two more opportunities but turned the ball over on downs near midfield and had a pass intercepted by Dylan Sanders to end the game.

Next week, 11-2 Fort Loramie will play for the regional title against 10-3 New Bremen at a site to be determined. Minster’s season ends with an 8-5 record.

“We really struggled last year with a new staff and some crazy injury stuff,” added Whiting. “We came in young again with some inexperienced seniors. We opened the season 1-2 and got blown out once (against Marion Local) and our kids showed up Week 4 ready to fight and put together a heck of a season for themselves. I could not be more proud of our seven seniors in the way that they contributed and bought in, whatever their role was on the team. I would be blessed to have those seven kids back again.”

Score by quarter 1 2 3 4 Total

Fort Loramie 7 7 14 7 35

Minster 7 6 6 0 19

First Quarter:

MIN – Brogan Stephey 29 yd run (Brogan Stephey kick), 9:02

FL – Logan Eilerman 6 yd pass from Caleb Maurer (Aden Bolin kick), 7:15

Second Quarter:

FL – Caleb Maurer 47 yd run (Aden Bolin kick), 6:19

MIN – Connor Schmiesing 18 yd pass from Brogan Stephey (kick failed), 0:06

Third Quarter:

FL – Logan Eilerman 46 yd pass from Caleb Maurer (Aden Bolin kick), 11:08

FL – Caleb Maurer 4 yd run (Aden Bolin kick), 7:35

MIN – Brogan Stephey 4 yd run (pass failed), 4:06

Fourth Quarter:

FL – Caleb Maurer 9 yd pass from Chrisitan McGee (Aden Bolin kick), 11:52

Team statistics FL MIN

First downs 12 19

Rushes - yards 33-156 29-134

Passing yards 190 217

Comp - att - int 11-17-0 17-35-1

Total yards 346 351

Punts - average 4-22.2 2-27.5

Fumbles - lost 0-0 1-1

Penalties - yards 4-37 6-46

Time of possession 25:10 22:50

Individual statistics

Rushing: Fort Loramie, C Maurer 15-118, D Eilerman 9-29, Holland 8-7 M Maurer 1-2; Minster, Stephey 17-103, Co Schmiesing 11-46, Team 1-minus 15

Passing: Fort Loramie, C Maurer 10-16-0-181, McGee 1-1-0-9; Minster, Stephey 17-35-1-217

Receiving: Fort Loramie, L Eilerman 7-133, D Eilerman 2-13, M Maurer 1-35, C Maurer 1-9; Minster, Co Schmiesing 5-60, Wuebker 4-43, Couse 3-53, Niemeyer 3-41, Heitkamp 1-15, Wolf 1-5