Minster Dominates Overmatched Manchester 75-14 to Open Playoffs

by Bruce Monnin

MINSTER – The Minster Wildcats hosted an outmanned Manchester Greyhound squad to open the playoffs, and they responded by setting school records for points scored in the first half and points scored in a game during the 75-14 rout.

Minster’s defense forced five first half turnovers, including interceptions by Connor Schmiesing, Dylan Heitkamp and Tyler Bergman. The Wildcat offense scored touchdowns on eight of their nine first half possessions and the special teams added a Schmiesing 52-yard punt return to take a 62-0 lead at intermission.

The game started well for Manchester as they executed a successful onside opening kickoff. Two plays later Will Knapke recovered a Greyhound fumble to end the threat.

The rest of the half was all Minster. Brogan Stephey completed a 13-yard touchdown pass to Kole Richard and an 18-yarder to James Niemeyer. Heitkamp scored on 51 and 31-yard runs, Schmiesing ran in from 29 yards out, Dominck Meyer scored on a 6-yard plunge and Owen Meyer added a 9-yard dash to paydirt. Scoring for the half ended when Carson Kaylor took the snap on a broken play, scrambled away from a sack and found Brendan Halpin for a 21-yard strike into the end zone.

The Wildcats added a two-yard run by Kaylor and a one-yard score by Colby Niemeyer in the second half.

Manchester also scored twice after intermission. A Mason Gilliam 32-yard run opened the fourth quarter and a five-yard pass from Ronnie Elam to Joel Blythe ended the game.

Minster outgained Manchester 426 yards to 158 and took advantage of six Greyhound turnovers. In addition to the punt return, the Wildcats had four scoring drives consisting of just one play.

Individually, freshman kicker Beckham Stephey set a new school record by converting nine extra-point kicks in a single game. The old record of eight extra points had been set by Brian Falk in games during the 2018 and 2020 seasons. Senior Will Frimel also set a new school record as he started the 47th game of his career.

Manchester ends their season with a 3-7 mark. #2 seeded Minster’s record improves to 9-2, and next week the Wildcats will host #7 seeded 7-4 St. Henry in the second round of the Region 28 playoffs.

Score by quarter 1 2 3 4 Total

Minster 42 20 6 7 75

Manchester 0 0 0 14 14

First Quarter:

MIN – Kole Richard 13 yd pass from Brogan Stephey (Beckham Stephey kick), 10:18

MIN – Dylan Heitkamp 51 yd run (Beckham Stephey kick), 9:05

MIN – Connor Schmiesing 29 yd run (Beckham Stephey kick), 4:31

MIN – James Niemeyer 18 yd pass from Brogan Stephey (Beckham Stephey kick), 4:05

MIN – Dylan Heitkamp 31 yd run (Beckham Stephey kick), 3:24

MIN – Dominick Meyer 6 yd run (Beckham Stephey kick), 1:16

Second Quarter:

MIN – Connor Schmiesing 52 yd punt return (kick failed), 11:34

MIN – Owen Meyer 9 yd run (Beckham Stephey kick), 6:50

MIN – Brendan Halpin 21 yd pass from Carson Kaylor (Beckham Stephey kick), 1:09

Third Quarter:

MIN – Carson Kaylor 2 yd run (kick failed), 4:04

Fourth Quarter:

MAN – Mason Gilliam 32 yd run (Joel Blythe pass from Leland Horner), 11:40

MIN – Colby Niemeyer 1 yd run (Beckham Stephey kick), 3:40

MAN – Joel Blythe 5 yd pass from Ronnie Elam (pass failed), 0:45

Team statistics MIN MAN

First downs 21 4

Rushes – yards 39-314 17-67

Passing yards 112 91

Comp - att – int 8-10-0 13-26-3

Total yards 426 158

Punts – average 0-0.0 3-32.7

Fumbles – lost 0-0 3-3

Penalties – yards 3-20 12-63

Time of possession 27:10 20:50

Individual statistics

Rushing: Minster, D. Meyer 6-85, Heitkamp 2-82, Schmiesing 4-40, Fancher 7-34, O. Meyer 5-21, C. Niemeyer 3-21, Kaylor 4-17, Bishop 8-14; Manchester, Gilliam 10-48, Barnes 1-38, Horner 2-0, Elam 1-0, Team 3-(minus 19)

Passing: Minster, Br. Stephey 5-7-0-81, Kaylor 3-3-0-31; Manchester, Horner 12-25-3-86, Elam 1-1-0-5

Receiving: Minster, J. Niemeyer 2-45, Halpin 2-29, Couse 2-23, Richard 1-13, Inskeep 1-2; Manchester, Elam 5-69, Blythe 4-10, Gilliam 3-6, Rickett 1-6