Saturday, December 6th, 2014
Wildcats rally to beat Hornets for title
Division VI State Football Championship
By Colin Foster
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard
Minster senior football players hoist the Division VI state championship trophy after rallying from nine points down in the final four minutes to beat defending state champion Kirtland 46-42 on Friday afternoon at Ohio Stadium. It's the seccond state football title for the program, the first coming 25 years ago in 1989. Marion Local and Coldwater will play for state titles today.
COLUMBUS - Minster coach Geron Stokes preached two things to his team all season long: fighting for 48 minutes and competing every down.
Those lessons came in handy on Friday in the program's biggest game in 25 years.
When Kirtland took a 42-33 lead on Adam Hess's three-yard touchdown run with 4:18 left in the Division VI state championship game, it appeared Minster's dream season would end on a sour note ... The "Cardiac Cats" weren't ready to accept that; it's not in their DNA.
Evan Huelsman ran for a two-yard touchdown to end an 11-play, 65-yard drive with 1:56 remaining, then kicker Jason Schultz recovered his own onside kick attempt. And quarterback Josh Nixon and receiver Eli Wolf had one more big play in them - a 51-yard scoring completion to put their team in front for the first time since the third quarter.
When Jared Thobe stopped Kirtland quarterback Sam Skiljan on a fourth-and-short, the Minster comeback was complete. The Wildcats captured their first state title since 1989 with a 46-42 win in front of 7,361 fans at Ohio Stadium.
"We feel like our offense is good enough to produce two scores quickly," Stokes said. "We've done that all year, so this isn't anything different ... we'll go score. Make a play, take what you're given, keep executing our stuff and we'll be okay.
"(Nixon) played his tail off tonight. Eli went and made a play late. We have really good skill and our offensive line continued to develop throughout the year and I felt like our offense could score with anybody. We were calm. That's just what we do."
"That onside kick put us in good field position," said Wolf, who finished with nine catches for 146 yards and three touchdowns. "We just ran a simple mesh rout where we came across low. I mean, we had somebody up there looking after us. That's the only thing I could think of honestly."
The Wildcats became the first team to hand the defending state champion Hornets a loss in 29 games. It was Minster's third playoff victory decided by four points or fewer.
"I think over the course of the season, even in the playoffs, that we've had a lot of experience in situations like that," Minster senior Joe Trzaska said. "Anna in Week Nine came down to the wire. Our first-round playoff game and our state semifinal were all as close as they come. We're used to playing under that kind of pressure I guess."
Kirtland rode running back Jacob Boyd down the field on its first series of the game. Boyd's 41-yard carry set up the Hornets at the five-yard line. Moments later, Boyd stormed to the paydirt for a five-yard touchdown with 9:40 to go in the first.
Nixon was intercepted by Matt Grazia on the first play following the score but the Wildcat defense forced a Kirtland three-and-out. Nixon marched his team into Hornet territory on the next two series. On the first drive, Minster was stopped on a fourth-and-two from the 20 but Bryce Schmiesing got Minster on the scoreboard with a three-yard TD run with 21 seconds left in the first quarter.
Kirtland fumbled on the first play after Schmiesing's touchdown and Hayden Schindler pounced on the ball 10 yards away from the end zone. Nixon and Wolf hooked up for a three-yard touchdown on the first play following the turnover.
The Hornets drove in Minster terrain on their next series but the drive came to an abrupt end. Skiljan kept the chains moving with a 23-yard completion to Matthew Finkler on a third-and-20. But Jacob Dues came up with a key stop on a third-and-six and then Skiljan threw an incompletion on the next play after being harassed by the Minster defensive line.
Skiljan and Finlker, however, got their redemption soon after.
Minster traveled into Hornet territory on the ensuing drive but it ended when Nixon was intercepted by Finkler with 4:44 left in the half. The game was an offensive shootout from that point on.
On the fourth play following the pick, Skiljan found a wide-open Finlker for a 48-yard touchdown to give Kirtland back the lead.
Minster's answer came one play after when Nixon fired a perfect strike to Bryce Schmiesing, who out-sprinted the Kirtland secondary and took it to the house for a 63-yard touchdown.
But the Hornets closed the half on an eight-play, 72-yard drive, with Skiljan delivering the go-ahead 16-yard touchdown pass to Finkler 23 seconds before half.
After running back Evan Huelsman carted the ball into Kirtland territory on Minster's first drive of the second half, Nixon and Wolf did the rest - hooking up for a 22-yard touchdown.
Kirkland's running game took it all the way down to the Minster 10-yard line on the next series. Then Skiljan hit Evan Madden for a 10-yard touchdown - the Hornets first pass of the drive - to take the lead back. The drive went 73 yards and lasted over five minutes.
Kirtland forced a three-and-out for the second time of the game on Minster's next possession and then embarked on another long drive. Adam Hess sprinted to the end zone for a nine-yard touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter to put the Hornets up 35-27.
Huelsman scored his second touchdown of the game - a three-yard rush - less than two minutes later, but Nixon missed Wolf high on a two-point conversion for the tie.
That failed conversion, however, was forgotten about when Nixon and Wolf hooked up for the game-winner with 1:22 left.
"We went man-to-man and their guy ran a crossing rout," Kirtland coach Tiger LeVerde said. "He broke a couple tackles and went down and scored."
Minster's junior quarterback passed for 418 yards. Three different Wildcat receivers went for more than 75 yards, including Schmiesing (seven catches for 150 yards) and Jacob Dues (five for 75).
Kirtland, led by Hess (39 carries for 163 yards) and Skiljan (19 for 112), amassed 368 yards on the ground. It is the second game this postseason Minster has given up more than 300 yards rushing and won.
"It was a fantastic football game," LaVerde said. "These guys played their hearts out. Both teams played their hearts out. The ball didn't bounce our way at the end and we didn't get stops when we needed them."
Stokes admitted after last week's win over Tinora in the state semifinals that he didn't believe his team was capable of competing for a state title before the season began.
The second-year Minster coach still didn't believe it after Friday's win.
"We didn't belong here early on in the year," Stokes said. "This is the most improvement I've ever seen out of a team. The kids just really bought into getting better. We honestly didn't belong here. Our coaching staff doesn't belong here, our kids don't belong here ... but we're state champs somehow. It's awesome."
Maybe Minster was a team of destiny after all.
"Like I said, there's somebody up there looking after us," said Wolf, as Stokes lurked in the background yelling "big-time players." "The Mechanicsburg game by one point, the Tinora game by one point and then this one. It's crazy."
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard
Minster's Eli Wolf scored three touchdowns, including the game-winner with 1:22 left in the game, to help Minster to a 46-42 come-from-behind win over defending champion Kirtland on Friday at Ohio Stadium.
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard
Minster's Josh Otting, 55, chases down Kirtland quarterback Sam Skiljan during Friday's Division VI state championship game in Columbus.
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard
Josh Nixon threw for 418 yards and four touchdowns in Minster's 46-42 win over Kirtland.
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard
Minster's Evan Huelsman rushed for 37 yards and two fourth-quarter touchdowns to help the Wildcats stay close to Kirtland.
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard
Minster's Hayden Schindler stretches to recover a fumble before Kirtland's Jacob Boyd, 44, can reach the ball.
