No. 10 Indians fight off St. Henry

The Indians have scored plenty of points this year.
But defense has also been a calling card.
After giving up a couple of big plays early Friday night, the Tribe defense could not have been much better.
The Division VII No. 10 Fort Recovery High School football team held St. Henry to just 14 yards of offense in the final three quarters, fighting off the Redskins for an 8-7 victory.
It was a much-needed win for the Indians, who had lost their last two games to Division VI No. 1 Marion Local and Division VII No. 6 Minster after opening 6-0.
“I’m just really proud of our players,” said FRHS coach Brent Niekamp, whose team has three shutouts this year and is allowing just 8.9 points per game. “To stick together like that in a tough game, especially coming after two losses, and not panic and trust everything and trust each other and finish the game right, I’m just terribly proud of them.
“It was big to get over the hump of finishing a game like this and coming out on the right side. The last two weeks were battles, and we didn’t play bad, but we didn’t finish things the way that we needed to, and that’s what we did tonight.”
After a long delay because of an injured St. Henry player at the 9:28 mark of the second quarter, Fort Recovery (7-2, 5-2 Midwest Athletic Conference) immediately cashed in.
Quarterback Caleb Martin connected with Wes Wenning on a 33-yard touchdown pass to pull the Tribe to within a point. But instead of going for the tie, Niekamp decided to try to take the lead.
Kyle Schroer, a running back, connected with Jason Roessner on a two-point conversion pass for an 8-7 advantage, and the defense took care of the rest.

St. Henry (5-4, 3-4 MAC) punted on its next drive, and couldn’t get out of the shadow of its own goalposts on its final possession before halftime. The Indians continued to stymie the visitors in the second half, forcing a pair of punts and ending a couple of drives on interceptions by Will Homan and Tanner Koch.
Adam LeFevre and Andrew Stocker combined for a key sack on the Redskins’ final possession as their drive stalled on their own 26-yard line.
St. Henry got all but 30 of its 179 total yards on two plays — an 66-yard end-around pass that caught FRHS off guard and an 83-yard bomb on which Wenning fell down in coverage.
Niekamp credited his team with keeping its poise, even when those big plays put it in a hole.
“We just made them fight for everything, and eventually we were able to win more of those battles,” he said.
The focus defensively was to shut down St. Henry running back Jesse Niekamp, who was limited to just 37 yards on 12 carries. Paul Stammen led the team with 40 yards on six attempts.
Matt Kuess matched Stocker in leading the Tribe defense with seven tackles.
Meanwhile, Fort Recovery pounded away at the Redskins on offense, handing the ball to Kyle Schroer 33 times. He picked up 136 yards, and Will Homan added another 88 on 11 carries.
“I was really happy with the way our line played,” said Brent Niekamp. “That was the key to the game, that we were able to control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.”
St. Henry got its only points on its second drive after the deep pass from Mitchel Stammen to Parker Link put the ball at the 9-yard line. Three plays later, Stammen rolled to his left and found Collin Mescher in the end zone for a 7-0 lead.
The Indians’ score came on their next possession.
In addition to the running attack, Caleb Martin completed seven passes for FRHS for 78 yards. Three of those went to Wenning for 50 yards.
Fort Recovery, which likely clinched a playoff berth with the win over the Redskins, will finish its regular season Friday with a trip to Versailles (4-5, 3-4 MAC).