Minster Survives Late Fort Recovery Drive for 28-21 Victory

by Bruce Monnin

FORT RECOVERY – Late in the fourth quarter, the Minster Wildcats were leading 28-21 over the Fort Recovery Indians and completed what appeared to be the back breaking 24-yard touchdown pass from Carson Kaylor to Noah Schwieterman. However, Schwieterman was ruled to have gone out of bounds at the three-yard line, thus illegal touching was called against Minster and the score was nullified. Two plays later Isaac Roessner intercepted a pass and returned it 47 yards to the Wildcat 43 with 3:29 remaining.

Fort Recovery used eight rushing plays to reach the Minster 12-yard line. On fourth down, quarterback Alex Gaerke was flushed from the pocket and dragged down by Jakob Davis to end the threat and preserve the Wildcat victory.

“Big for our kids. We told them all week to just come out and fight,” summarized Minster coach Seth Whiting. “Man am I proud of our kids for finding a way.”

“Tough loss. It was a very even game. They just made a handful less mistakes than we did. They chucked their way done the field and didn’t make mistakes,” added Indian coach Wes Wenning.

Each team only possessed the ball five times in the game. Every possession in the first half resulted in touchdowns. The difference was the Wildcat defense had two second half stops while Fort Recovery only stopped the Minster offense once.

The Wildcats received the opening kickoff and Kaylor ripped off a 32-yard run to start the drive. Eight plays later Kaylor connected with Cole Albers for an 18-yard touchdown pass and the 7-0 lead.

The Indians responded with a 13-play drive that lasted into the second quarter. Gaerke completed a critical 17-yard pass to Colson Post to convert a fourth down, then a 13-yard pass to Troy Post. This set up Reece Wendel’s two-yard scoring plunge to even the score.

The offenses moved faster on their next drives. First Kaylor found Schwieterman open over the middle for a 35-yard score. Then Wendel used runs of 22, 22, 13 and five yards to counter the Minster score with one for Fort Recovery.

The Wildcats followed with the drive of the game. Starting with 6:38 remaining on the clock, Minster gained 67 yards on 16 plays. The Wildcats converted three fourth downs, including a play where Kaylor avoided a sack and found Schwieterman behind the defense for 37 yards to the three-yard line. After two one-yard runs, Minster faced third down with six seconds on the clock. A Meyer run up the middle came up short and no time showed on the clock. However, the official ruled Minster had called a timeout before time expired. With another chance, Meyer bullied into the end zone to give the Wildcats a 21-14 halftime lead.

“I knew I had a timeout and running a play straight downhill from two yards behind the center does not take six seconds when you get tackled right away,” commented Whiting.

With the help of a crucial offensive pass interference penalty, the Minster defense registered the first stop of the night. The Wildcats then scored on their fourth consecutive possession when Kaylor diced through the heart of the Indian defense for a 45-yard touchdown.

Minster then attempted an onside kick, but it was smothered by Cayson Kaikala to give Fort Recovery great field position.

“We were going to start the half with it, but then we decided if we get a stop and get up by two scores we were going to go for the throat,” explained Whiting. “Beckham (Stephey) kicked a great ball. It skipped, hopped and hit him in the chest. That’s pretty much what we want because that’s a hard ball to field. But their kid did a really good job of making a play.”

The Indians used the running game to pound the ball down the field, then Gaerke connected with Breaker Jutte for a nine-yard score to close the gap to 28-21. That led to the subsequent Fort Recovery interception and the late game stop by the Wildcat defense.

If the final Indian drive had ended in a score, would they have tried to tie the game with the extra point or gone for the win?

“Iin this game I think we would have gone for two,” theorized Wenning. “We had trouble stopping their consistency on offense.”

The leading rusher for the game was Fort Recovery’s Wendel, who gained 142 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries. Minster’s running game was led by Kaylor, who covered 115 yards in just 13 attempts while Meyer tacked on 83 yards on 20 carries. Both Wildcat backs scored once.

Minster doubled up the Indians through the air, as Kaylor completing nine of 13 passes for 137 yards, with Schwieterman making the two biggest catches for 72 yards and one trip into the end zone.

Minster ends the regular season 6-4 (5-3 MAC) and as the #9 seed in Region 28 will travel next week to play #8 seed 9-1 Sidney Lehman. The winner of that matchup will face top seeded Marion Local in the second round.

Fort Recovery ends the regular season 5-5 (3-5 MAC) and will also travel next week as the #12 seed to play #5 seed 8-2 Cincinnati College Prep. A victory in that game sends Fort Recovery to play #4 seed 10-0 Beaver Eastern in the second round.

Score by quarter 1 2 3 4 Total

Minster 7 14 7 0 28

Fort Recovery 0 14 0 7 21

First Quarter:

MIN – Cole Albers 18 yd pass from Carson Kaylor (Beckham Stephey kick), 6:39

Second Quarter:

FR – Reece Wendel 2 yd run (Alex Gaerke kick), 11:09

MIN – Noah Schwieterman 35 yd pass from Carson Kaylor (Beckham Stephey kick), 8:32

FR – Reece Wendel 5 yd run (Alex Gaerke kick), 6:45

MIN – Dominick Meyer 1 yd run (Beckham Stephey kick), 0:00

Third Quarter:

MIN – Carson Kaylor 45 yd run (Beckham Stephey kick), 2:46

Fourth Quarter:

FR – Breaker Jutte 9 yd pass from Alex Gaerke (Alex Gaerke kick), 9:46

Team statistics MIN FR

First downs 17 15

Rushes – yards 35-195 37-199

Passing yards 137 61

Comp - att – int 9-13-1 5-10-0

Total yards 332 260

Punts – average 0-0.0 1-28.0

Fumbles – lost 0-0 2-0

Penalties – yards 7-55 6-55

Time of possession 26:19 21:41

Individual statistics

Rushing: Minster, Kaylor 13-115, Meyer 20-83, Bergman 1-1, Team 1-(minus 4); Fort Recovery, Wendel 22-142, Gaerke 10-35, Jutte 5-22

Passing: Minster, Kaylor 9-13-1-137; Fort Recovery, Gaerke 5-10-0-61

Receiving: Minster, Ketner 3-34, Schwieterman 2-72, Bergman 2-7, Albers 1-18, Meyer 1-6; Fort Recovery, C. Post 2-26, Jutte 2-22, T. Post 1-13