Indians take down Rockets

FORT RECOVERY - The Fort Recovery football team checked off many firsts during the 2014 season, but a few items remained unchecked.

The Indians marked one of those off the list with a 21-12 victory over Anna on Friday night at Barrenbrugge Park - the program's first win over the Rockets in nine meetings.

Kyle Schroer ran for 180 yards and two touchdowns, Will Homan had a key kickoff return and added a rushing score, and the Indian defense was dialed in during the fourth quarter as they improved to 3-0 and 1-0 in the Midwest Athletic Conference.

"They're traditionally a team that has good athletes and they play hard. We knew it was going to be a battle," Fort Recovery coach Brent Niekamp said. "Them coming in without a win didn't mean anything. We knew they were going to battle really hard and they did. Their coaches put together a good game plan, but we were able to raise our level of play and come out with a victory. I'm really proud of our guys."

Fort Recovery built a 14-0 lead on a 78-yard run by Schroer with 7:31 left in the first quarter and a 21-yard run by Will Homan on the opening play of the second.

The Rockets made the score 14-6 with 4:53 left in the half, driving 95 yards and scoring on Colin Wuebker's eight-yard run. Anna had another long drive in the third quarter, once again finished on an eight-yard run by Wuebker, but a failed two-point conversion try left the Indians in front 14-12.

Will Homan returned the ensuing kickoff to the Rocket 45-yard line. Three plays later, Schroer walked into the end zone from 21 yards out to extend the lead to 21-12 with 10 seconds left in the quarter and give the Indians a little breathing room.

"Momentum changes the game," Niekamp said. "When they got rolling, they were tough. Will making that nice return for us and our return guys setting up the blocking for him was big. All of a sudden, we stop them on the two-point conversion, we get that (return), and we've got the momentum at that point. It definitely put us in a better position for closing out the game."

Ross Homan (nine tackles), Andrew Stocker (eight tackles) and the Fort Recovery 'D' clamped down on the Anna offense the rest of the game. They did allow one big play, a 36-yard completion from Travis Meyer to the 6-foot-4 Kain Luthman on a fourth-and-long with 4:15 left. On the next play, though, Darien Sheffer slid in and intercepted Meyer's pass to seal the deal.

Anna let a chance slip away on its opening drive of the game. Two plays into the series, Wuebker called his own number, made a would-be Indian tackler miss and carried the ball 60 yards down into the red zone. That massive gain, however, was all for nothing as Wes Wenning intercepted Wuebker's tipped pass inside the 10-yard line. Schroer turned on the jets for his 78-yard score seconds after.

After Will Homan's score put Anna in a 14-0 hole, Wuebker fumbled on Anna's followup next series and Ross Homan was there to recover at the Rocket 32 with 11:45 remaining in the second. But the Indians couldn't do anything with it as Caleb Martin's fourth-down pass was intercepted by Anna at the five. That set the stage for the visitors to go 95 yards, aided by two Fort Recovery pass interference calls, and pull within one score.

Wuebker totaled 134 yards on 24 carries in the game. Connor Rioch added 87 yards on 14 carries for the Rockets, who fell to 0-3 and 0-1 in the MAC.

Next week, the Indians could become the first team from Fort Recovery to start a season 4-0 with a win at Delphos St. John's. They will return home Sept. 25 to face Parkway. Following that game, Fort Recovery plays at New Bremen before a Week Seven showdown at home with Minster in what could be a playoff preview.