Redskins secure upset

ST. HENRY - St. Henry's defense forced four turnovers in the second half and gave the Redskins one chance after another to put Coldwater away, but with just over a minute remaining, the defense had to hold tough one more time.

The Redskins were up to the challenge.

St. Henry forced a four-and-out to take over with 28 seconds left and the Redskins finished off a 21-14 win over undefeated, Division VI No. 1-ranked Coldwater in a Midwest Athletic Conference football game at the Wally Post Athletic Complex on Friday.

"We feel like we had two losses earlier in the year to two pretty good teams because of losing the turnover battle, losing special teams," St. Henry coach Brad Luthman said, referring to losses to Fort Frye and Marion Local. "So finally to have one where we came out on the right side of things, it really contributed to us winning."

The Cavaliers' turnovers started on the opening drive of the third quarter. After Coldwater (6-1, 4-1 MAC) drove 43 yards in 10 plays, a botched third-down snap got past Marcel Blasingame and St. Henry's Ben Moorman fell on the ball.

St. Henry (5-2, 4-1 MAC) went three-and-out, but this time Coldwater's Reece Dellinger fired a pass to Jesse Meyer over the middle and the ball bounced off his hands right into the breadbasket of defensive back Jaden Lange.

"Not going to win a game with four turnovers in the second half," Coldwater coach Chip Otten said. "That's a good team, and our defense stepped up in the second half, didn't give them anything, and we handed it to them four times."

Given another chance, St. Henry made it to the Coldwater 37 before running back Owen Lefeld was tackled for a four-yard loss that forced the Redskins to punt.

Coldwater fumbled again, with Lefeld on the recovery for St. Henry, but the Redskins offense started out with a block-below-the-knees penalty and couldn't recover. After driving back into Redskins territory, Dellinger spied Blasingame streaking down the sideline and flung the ball up for a potential tying touchdown.

His pass was off-target and it was Lange who found himself on the other end.

"They weren't stopping us," Otten said. "The one was off a snap, then a couple throws, one was deflected off a guy's hands. We felt good about what we were calling, we just turned it over."

St. Henry made it down to the Coldwater 23 on an 11-play drive before Brookhart was whistled for an illegal forward pass on fourth down. But the drive drained nearly six minutes off the clock and forced Coldwater to burn its remaining timeouts.

With 1:13 left, Dellinger came under pressure on first down and couldn't connect with Tyler Schwieterman, then scrambled for five yards on the next play before missing Meyer on third down. On fourth down, he lofted a pass into double coverage that fell incomplete.

"The M.O. with playing Coldwater is limiting big plays," Luthman said. "We didn't in the first half. They hit that big post route for a touchdown. But as soon as we settled down and limited the big plays, we came out on the right side."

St. Henry didn't force a punt until the second quarter, but the defensive stand paved the way for the Redskins to take the lead. Ben Moorman delivered a big hit downfield after Schwieterman made a third-down catch, jarring the ball free and forcing the Cavaliers to punt.

With the Redskins at the Coldwater 38-yard line, Harrison Wendel slipped behind the Cavaliers defense on the right side and Brookhart connected as a Coldwater defender tackled Wendel over the goal line. Michael Gonzalez made the point after to give St. Henry a 21-14 lead with 1:50 left in the first half.

That was the last time either team got on the board.

"(After halftime), we went to a bigger group of guys with a four-man front," Otten said. "Our defensive ends aren't real big guys and their two tackles are really big guys. So we went bigger, took two offensive tackles and played them on the d-line a little bit more in the second half."

After Lange capped St. Henry's five-minute opening drive with a nine-yard reverse for a score, Coldwater needed just 27 seconds to answer. Schwieterman beat Lange on a deep post from the right side and Dellinger found him over the middle of the field for a 53-yard touchdown to make it 7-7 with six minutes left in the first.

Coldwater started its next drive at the St. Henry 45 after the Redskins were backed up by penalties and ran a leisurely eight-play drive, with Dellinger punctuating it with a three-yard run to the pylon to put the Cavaliers ahead.

St. Henry was called for a block in the back on the kickoff return, but Brookhart quickly moved the Redskins up the field and Lefeld and Eli Horstman took care of the final 15 yards, with Lefeld taking a carry inside left tackle and plowing through the defense for a three-yard touchdown to even the score.

"That's what they do," Otten said. "They've got a 200-pound tailback and some big older linemen. Call your defense, and those three or four yards, you're not really doing anything wrong, but they made those runs."

Lefeld finished with 173 yards rushing on 31 carries as St. Henry compiled 247 yards on the ground.

In addition to the four turnovers that didn't yield any points, the Redskins also overcame 12 penalties that cost them 89 yards, including one that cost them a 53-yard Lefeld touchdown.

"It's frustrating," Luthman said. "If we hadn't come out on the right side, obviously we would've looked back on some of those touchdowns or near-touchdowns that got called all the way back and been really upset. But some of it comes down to our kids trying to make plays."

The loss was Coldwater's first since Nov. 8, 2019, snapping an 18-game winning streak.

For St. Henry, the win marks three straight since a 20-7 loss to MAC leader Marion Local on Sept. 10.

"I'll be honest, we coached our kids really, really hard since that Marion game," Luthman said. "We didn't let them be okay with what happened in that game. Give our kids credit, they took it to heart and they've steadily improved the last three weeks."

Coldwater gets a chance to bounce back next Friday when it returns home to face Minster, while St. Henry's goes on the road to face Anna.