Fort Recovery handles Blue Jays

FORT RECOVERY — Standing on the goal line, Caleb Martin took the snap and dropped back into his own end zone.
The sophomore quarterback waited a beat, and then lofted a pass down the right sideline. Wes Wenning caught the ball in stride near the 25-yard line, and avoiding the outstretched arms of cornerback Jacob Youngpeter he angled to the center of the field.
By the time he was done running he had completed the second-longest play in school history — 98 yards — and given the Fort Recovery High School football team a 20-0 advantage en route to its 39-7 thrashing of the St. John’s Blue Jays.
It was the big play for the Indians (3-1, 1-1 Midwest Athletic Conference) in a game they controlled from start to finish.
“I would have to attribute that to our seniors and their leadership,” said FRHS coach Brent Niekamp of his team’s role as the aggressor. “One thing those guys take a lot of pride in … is the idea that we’re going to play harder than the other team every play of the game. … It’s a lot of fun to play that way.”
The second quarter belonged to Martin and Wenning, who connected on the first of their two TD passes at the 10:28 mark. The Blue Jays (2-2, 0-2 MAC) went three-and-out on their next drive, and FRHS was left in a hole after a fair catch on a punt put the ball at the 2-yard line.
But after a Cole Hull run was stuffed, the Indians decided to take a shot.
“That’s kind of the thing we had to do, because they had everybody all stacked up there,” said Niekamp. “They weren’t going to let us run it … Caleb made a good throw, and Wes made a great play after he caught it.”
The 98-yard pass-and-catch accounted for more than two-thirds of Martin’s yards as he finished 8-of-15 for 140 yards.
It was the second-longest play in school history, trailing only a 99-yard scoring pass from Tyler Niekamp, Brent’s brother, to Jon Kaup against Minster in 2000.
“Caleb was pretty sharp tonight,” said Brent Niekamp, also complimenting the offensive line for keeping the pocket clean most of the night. “He did a nice job of just being very steady and just doing the right things with the football. He made some real nice throws and that was one of them.”
St. John’s got its only score after a muffed punt gave it the ball in Tribe territory. On the ensuing drive, the Indians lost track of Zach Fisher running down the middle of the field, and quarterback Nick Martz hit him for a 35-yard touchdown pass.
The Blue Jays got the ball back again with just under a minute left in the opening half and also had the first possession of the second half, but were unable to muster a threat.
Fort Recovery put the game away when Cole Hull scored on a 7-yard run — his second TD of the night — in the third quarter, and added an Alex Schoen fumble recovery for a touchdown after Jason Roessner downed a Darien Sheffer punt at the 2-yard line. Mitch Stammen capped the scoring with a 4-yard TD run.
Hull finished with 144 yards on 25 carries, and Wenning caught four passes for 116 yards and the two TD receptions from Martin.
Schoen made 11 tackles to go along with his fumble recovery for a TD, and Tyler Acheson, playing in place of the injured Seth Riegle, picked off a pass to halt the Blue Jays’ second drive of the game.
“He just played a great game,” said Niekamp of Acheson while also complimenting Jacob Westgerdes, who was Riegle’s replacement on the offensive line. “He had that interception early. He’s just a big, physical sophomore, and he’s getting better every game.”
Martz paced St. John’s on the ground with 85 yards on 17 carries, and also completed 6 passes for 59 yards. Fort Recovery out-gained the Blue Jays 420-181.
The blowout win ended the Indians’ six-game losing streak against St. John’s. Their last win in the series came by a 29-28 score in 2007.
It was also one more step toward their ultimate goal — the first postseason berth in Fort Recovery history.
“It feels pretty good,” said Niekamp. “This is the kind of thing that we hoped that we could be doing at the beginning of the season. … We don’t make any secret about it, our goal is to get to that 11th week and play in the postseason. We’re setting ourselves up in a decent position to do that.”