FR knocks off St. Henry

ST. HENRY, Ohio — Conventional wisdom said the situation called for a pass. But the Tribe coaching staff had a different idea.
Facing a third-and-10 with less than two minutes to play and trailing by a point, the Indians instead gave the ball to their senior running back. Cole Hull broke through the middle of the St. Henry line and zoomed to the end zone, likely carrying his team’s playoff hopes along with him.
Hull’s 52-yard touchdown run lifted the Fort Recovery High School football team to just its second win — 31-26 — over the Redskins in school history and put it in prime position for its first playoff berth.
Fort Recovery (6-3, 4-3 Midwest Athletic Conference) went back-and-forth with the Redskins all night and found itself trailing 26-25 after Evan Prenger’s 19-yard touchdown reception from Mitchel Stammen with just 1:23 left on the clock.
A Caleb Martin pass and Hull run earned the Indians a first down on the ensuing drive, but the next two Martin passes fell incomplete to leave the visiting team facing a third-and-10 with less than a minute left. Instead of going to the air for a third straight play, Martin handed the ball off to Hull for the game-winning TD run.
St. Henry had a final chance to reclaim the advantage, but a desperation 42-yard pass from Stammen to A.J. Niekamp was incomplete as time expired.
While it was Hull who finished off the Redskins, the evening belonged to Wes Wenning as he hauled in five passes from Martin for 173 yards and three touchdowns. The junior receiver had TD receptions of 60 yards in the first quarter to open the scoring, 4 yards in the second to pull FRHS even at 13 and 88 yards on a bubble screen in the fourth quarter to start the frantic finish.
Martin tossed for 198 yards on 13 completions, and Stammen caught seven passes for 29 yards. Hull’s final run put him over the century mark as he had 14 carries for 137 yards.
A.J. Niekamp caught two passes, both touchdowns, for 111 yards to pace the Redskins. Jesse Niekamp ran 21 times for 81 yards.
The Indians’ only other win over St. Henry, against which they are 2-18 all time, came by a 25-0 score in 2011. They reached the six-win mark for just the second time in school history and the first since becoming a member of the MAC for football.