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St. Henry's Carter LaGuire (8) pushes away New Bremen's Caleb Keller during Friday's game in New Bremen.
NEW BREMEN - A gut-check fourth quarter drive capped a second-half St. Henry comeback, lifting the Redskins to a 21-14 victory over New Bremen Friday night at Cardinal Stadium.
In a game with more than its fair share of crazy pass completions, St. Henry ground out a 14-play, 81-yard drive picking up five first downs and chewing six minutes off the clock.
Redskin quarterback Charlie Werling, who hobbled off the field two series earlier with what appeared to be a game-ending injury, came back behind center for The Drive. Werling called his own number six times, the last of which resulted in a five-yard touchdown run for a 21-14 lead with 2:42 left in the game.
"We're talking to our kids about how we need to get over hoping we're going to win instead of believing we're going to win. That's two different things, and boy they believed it tonight," St. Henry coach Josh Werling said. "That was a huge drive for us in the fourth quarter, late in the year against a good team. I couldn't be prouder."
St. Henry (5-4, 4-3 Midwest Athletic Conference), got on the board first, taking advantage of the game's first turnover.
Braden Heath stepped in front of a Gavin Dicke pass to make the interception and give the 'Skins the ball at the New Bremen 30. But three plays netted zero yards, setting up a fourth-and-10 and the game's first wild completion.
Werling dropped back to pass, only to see the pocket collapse in the face of a New Bremen blitz. The St. Henry quarterback appeared to be down, but he broke free of two would-be tacklers, rolled left and tossed an arching pass to Carson Harrod, who somehow came down with the ball in the end zone with a crowd of Cardinals around him.
St. Henry's Carson Harrod (5) gets ready to catch the ball during Friday's game at St. Henry.
New Bremen (4-5, 2-5 MAC) answered with a 75-yard drive, capped with a two-yard touchdown run by Rogan Muether to tie the game on the second play of the second quarter.
Fifty-three seconds later the Cardinals would take the lead. Jordan Evers recovered a St. Henry fumbled handoff two plays after the kickoff. The very next play from scrimmage saw Dicke complete a 36-yard touchdown pass to Muether, who didn't have a Redskin defender in his same zip code.
Aidan Eastman added his second successful PAT kick for a 14-7 New Bremen lead with 10:29 left in the first half.
"This was the type of game I anticipated," New Bremen coach Chris Schmidt said. "For the most part we were pretty evenly matched and I thought it might come down to a couple of possessions, or a couple plays here and there. Credit to coach Werling, his staff and his kids. They made more plays tonight."
The Redskins struggled to sustain any drives in the first half. Werling completed three passes of 30-plus yards, which constituted St. Henry's only three first downs of the half. Factoring in four sacks of Werling, the 'Skins netted minus one yard of rushing in the first two quarters.
"That was on me and me only," coach Werling said. "I need to stay with the run game longer. I wish I would have been more patient in the first half, but man our guys responded. It was all about that offensive line in the second half."
St. Henry drove inside the New Bremen 10 yard line to open the second half, but came up wide on a 27-yard field goal attempt.
After forcing another New Bremen three-and-out, it would be back-up quarterback Jack Huelsman, filling in for the injured Werling, that would lead the Redskins to the tying touchdown.
A 24-yard completion to Carter Laguire got St. Henry in the red zone. Huelsman then lofted a perfect throw to Harrod, who made the over-the-shoulder catch in the endzone. Owen Zimmerman's PAT kick tied the score with 2:27 left in the third quarter.
New Bremen answered with its best drive of the second half, converting three third downs, but things stalled after Dicke was sacked, forcing a punt and setting up the game-winning drive with 8:34 left.
New Bremen's Jordan Evers (56) tackles St. Henry's Charlie Werling.
"Yeah, this stings, no doubt about it," Schmidt said. "There were some key areas where we didn't execute, or we missed an opportunity. In the second half, they started running downhill on us, and we just couldn't get off the field a couple times when we needed to. And offensively it seemed like we were close a couple times to popping a big play, but we couldn't break through."
St. Henry clinched a Division VII playoff berth with the win Friday, and most likely a home game, but coach Werling is not thinking too far ahead.
"We're not talking about playoffs," he said. "We want to end our season on the right note and we have a very good Versailles team next week, so we'll look forward to that."
The Cardinals are also in position for a playoff spot and possibly a rematch with the Redskins, but a road trip to Delphos St. John's is scheduled for the regular season finale.
"Going to Delphos is not going to be easy," Schmidt said. "I've never gone up there and thought to myself, 'wow, that was easy.' So we're going to have to be ready to play."
