Fort Loramie’s Ray Hoying breaks a tackle attempt by Minster’s Max Knapke during a regular season game on Friday at Fort Loramie.
Luke Gronneberg | Sidney Daily News
FORT LORAMIE — Fort Loramie lost 49-21 to Minster in a season opener on Friday.
“We didn’t play our best football tonight,” Fort Loramie head coach Spencer Wells said. “Credit to Minster. They’ve got a really good team.”
Fort Loramie opened the game with the ball and made a strong push down field with a 26-yard pass on third down from quarterback Gabe Hart to Maxwell Maurer.
But the Wildcats prevented them from scoring with a redzone stand forcing a turnover on downs with 6:03 left to play in the first quarter.
Minster took control of the ball and showed some explosiveness as quarterback Brogan Stephey took a designed run for a first down. The Wildcats were unable to score after Fort Loramie linebacker Ray Hoying came up with a big stop on third down to force a punt.
Hart took his second sack of the game on the first play of Fort Loramie’s drive before it was forced to punt again.
“I thought our guys up front played exceptional tonight,” Minster head coach Seth Whiting said. “As frustrated as I am about certain things, I’m very, very proud of our kids for some of the things they accomplished.”
With Minster back on offense, they made quick work of Fort Loramie’s defense with a 52-yard touchdown run from running back Connor Schmiesing. After a successful PAT, the Wildcats had a 7-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Hart took yet another sack for a loss of eight yards to force a punt giving Minster the ball again.
Fort Loramie’s Kaleb Bergman made a big stop on second down to attempt to stop progress, but Stephey negated it with a first down sprint. He followed that up with another huge run, this time for 43 yards before another short run from the quarterback gave the Wildcats a 14-0 lead with 9:16 left to play in the half.
Fort Loramie managed a first down, but was unable to make much progress beyond that after Hart overthrew a receiver, which forced a punt.
Minster got the ball again and made an impact with another first down run from Stephey followed up by an acrobatic 15-yard catch by Schmiesing. After a Fort Loramie sideline interference and another Wildcats first down, Schmiesing scored another touchdown on a short run.
A successful PAT put Minster up 21-0 with 4:17 to go in the half.
Fort Loramie got a break on a Wildcats pass interference that allowed Thomas Hoying to score a touchdown just a few plays later on an 8-yard pass from Hart, cutting the lead to 21-7 at the half.
Minster received the kickoff to start the third quarter and swiftly took advantage with a 45-yard touchdown run from Stephey making the score 28-7 with 10:40 to play in the third.
With Fort Loramie on offense, Maurer had a 50-yard reception to bring the team into Wildcats territory. Hart got Fort Loramie back on the board with a 12-yard touchdown pass to Carter Eilerman making it a 28-14 game in the third.
With Minster back on offense, Stephey and Schmiesing traded off rushing for first downs before Schmiesing scored on a short run to extend the Wildcats lead to 35-14 with 5:00 left in the third.
Hart took his fifth sack of the game and fumbled shortly into the Fort Loramie drive, giving possession back to Minster.
The Wildcats took advantage of the turnover by scoring on the very next play on a 29-yard pass to Dylan Hietkamp. With just under four minutes in the third, Minster held a 42-14 lead.
Hoying caught another touchdown pass early in the fourth quarter to make the score 42-14.
Minster added its final score of the game with 6:41 left to play when Cole Albers caught a lengthy pass to make the final score of 49-21.
“We’re going to find out a lot about ourselves this week,” Wells said. “We’ve got everything out in front of us, we can still go and win a conference championship.”
The Minster Wildcats are away again next Friday at Columbus Africentric at 7 p.m.
Fort Loramie is back in action next Friday at 7 p.m. where it will travel to Versailles.
Reach Sidney Daily News assistant editor Ryan Harless at 937-538-4651, or follow @RyanHarless_ on Twitter.
