Saturday, December 5th, 2015
Indians' dream season becomes golden
Division VII State Football Championship
By Colin Foster
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard
Fort Recovery's Kyle Schroer, 2, who was injured midway through the playoffs, holds up the Division VII state championship trophy after the Indians' 33-14 win over Mogadore. The Indians, who made the playoffs for the first time last season, won the school's first-ever state football title Friday evening in Columbus.
COLUMBUS - They were on the bottom for a long time.
Now the Fort Recovery Indians are officially on top.
The Indians defeated the Mogadore Wildcats 33-14 to claim their first state championship in program history in front of an audience of 7,957 at Ohio Stadium.
"I don't know if I can describe it," Fort Recovery coach Brent Niekamp said. "We went through a lot of years sort of being the cellar-dwellers in our conference, which you guys know is a really tough league. To make this jump, it seemed like it just happened overnight, but it didn't. This was five, six, seven years in the making and there was a lot of guys who played in those seasons where our records didn't look as good. They kind of just laid the foundation for what these guys were able to do."
Caleb Martin and the Indians earned a passing grade in their final test of the season facing a Mogadore team that had just knocked off poll champion Danville. Martin, a junior quarterback, threw for a small-school championship game record 385 passing yards and five touchdowns to lead the offense.
All-Ohioan Wes Wenning (eight catches, 121 yards and one TD) and Brandon Schoen (five catches, 125 yards, one TD) were the top two playmakers for Martin.
"I just knew I needed to get the ball in the hands of our playmakers and I did," Martin said. "They just made a lot of stuff happen. I spread the wealth tonight and everybody made plays."
The Fort Recovery defense was lights out again in silencing another quality offense. They bent a few times but didn't break often, capping off an impressive playoff run by limiting the Mogadore offense to 307 yards.
"Early in the season, we had a couple games where we would start turning to each other, pointing fingers, yelling at each other," Fort Recovery sack leader Adam LeFevre said. "We were just out of whack. Every single week we just worked to get better and that just develops that trust."
"It came down to just people filling their gaps and just the way the defensive line plays, the way the linebackers and the secondary plays," said Ross Homan, who shared the team lead in tackles with Darien Sheffer with eight. "We know if we make plays we're going to win the ball game."
The Wildcats received the ball to open the game but didn't have it long. Will Homan intercepted Zeddie Pollock's pass on the second play. Four plays later, the Indians were in the end zone as Darien Sheffer caught a pass, made a move and then leaped in for a 15-yard score on a third-and-long.
The Wildcats moved the ball into Indian territory on their following series but the drive was derailed when Andrew Stocker shot through the line and made a stop of a fourth-and-short.
Soon after, Tanner Koch caught a 10-yard pass from Martin in the end zone and the Indians went up 14-0 with 6:49 to go in the first quarter.
Mogadore had the ball on the Indians side of the field three times in the first half and finally capitalized the third time. Pollock hooked up with Jared Dunn over the top for a gain of 30 to put the ball at the 25-yard line. Pollock later found Dunn in the corner of the end zone for a 17-yard touchdown with 3:26 left in the half.
It didn't take long for the Indians to respond. Three plays into the next offensive series, Martin shot a BB on the money to big-play Brandon Schoen, who received it in stride and was off to the races for a 75-yard touchdown to make it 20-7.
Facing a fourth-and-midrange later in the half, Sheffer, also the punter, saw some space and ran for the first down. It led to the second Martin-Koch hookup of the half - an eight-yard strike into a tight window near the pylon with 5:17 to spare.
Fort Recovery maintained that 27-7 lead at halftime. It was a completely dominant statistical half for the Indians, who outgained the Wildcats 307-136. Martin had already established a new title game passing yardage record by halftime with 277 yards on 17-of-26 passes. He fired his fifth touchdown to a wide-open Wenning for a 30-yard touchdown reception two minutes into the fourth quarter.
"I've got to admit, I was a little concerned with this being our first time here," Niekamp said. "Obviously, I wondered if the magnitude of the game would affect us at all mentally, and it didn't seem to. These guys came out like they do every week, ready to play well for four quarters."
"We knew coming in that you can't do the things we did right off the bat, turn the ball over and have key penalties during drives early on," Mogadore coach Matt Adorni said. "We really weren't able to seize any momentum away from them. I think they surprised us a little bit with their speed and overall athleticism. Tape (scouting video) didn't do them justice."
Will Homan went touchdown-less for the first time this postseason but still finished with 82 yards on 19 carries. He made an impact defensively with two interceptions. Sheffer added five catches for 76 yards and Koch caught five passes for 49 yards.
Pollock finished 17-of-37 passing for 167 yards for Mogadore. Austin Williams added a late touchdown as part of a 54-yard day on the ground.
Martin and his teammates always believed they would be playing at state before the season even began - the junior went on the record saying so before the season kicked off. That belief carried them to the title.
"Ever since our first workout back in May, we knew this was our goal from the start," Martin said. "We had success last year, getting to the playoffs for the first time in school history. Our goal was to get here and we knew once we did we'd be good enough to win the game. That's what we did. We made it happen."
The Indians had endured 10 straight losing seasons before last year's playoff run. They're winners now in a conference full of champions.
"We feel like we belong now," Niekamp said.
The crowd erupted as the team stood in front of them and raised the trophy. It was a celebration more than 20 years in the making.
"As far as our community, we know how proud they are," Niekamp said. "What you guys saw in the stands tonight, that was our whole town. Those guys were here. It's really special. We're a really close-knit community and there's lots of cousins and aunts and uncles and cousins who were cheering their brains out. It's a great feeling."
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard
Fort Recovery's Caleb Martin, 9, fires a pass as lineman Kyle Knapke, 53, sets up to block during the Division VII state championship game. Martin set a Division VII state final record with 385 passing yards in the Indians' 33-14 win over Mogadore, giving Fort Recovery its first-ever state football championship.
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard
Darien Sheffer, 12, had 75 receiving yards in Fort Recovery's win over Mogadore in the Division VII state championship game.
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard
Fort Recovery's Brandon Schoen looks for running room against Mogadore.
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard
Fort Recovery's Will Homan looks for running room. Homan had 82 yards rushing in the Indians' 33-14 win over Mogadore to capture the Division VII state football championship.
