Tribe one step away from goal

Officially, the journey began Aug. 1.
Unofficially, the road started in January.
“Those guys were breaking out after workouts ‘week 15,’” said Brent Niekamp, Fort Recovery High School’s football coach. “The seniors really took the lead with that attitude and it’s just kind of built with the offeseason, the preseason (and) throughout the course of the year.
“We’re a lot better than we were four or five weeks ago, and it’s because that has always been the focus and the goal: ‘Are we a week 15 type of team yet?’”
The Indians are close.
Fort Recovery (11-2), which is ranked eighth in Division VII and is less than a week removed from the program’s first regional championship, is one game away from becoming a week 15 team.
The Tribe squares off against the fourth-ranked McComb Panthers (12-1) at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Lima Spartan Stadium in Lima, Ohio. The Panthers defeated No. 9 Lucas 36-6 in its regional championship, and Fort Recovery avenged a regular-season loss to No. 5 Minster with a 33-21 victory five days ago.

The start
Fort Recovery began the season with six consecutive wins, which included a combined score of 70-6 in victories against Lehman Catholic and Fort Loramie. The Indians defeated Fort Loramie in their first-ever playoff game last season.
The Tribe followed those victories by knocking off Anna (21-12) and Delphos St. Johns (26-20), before posting back-to-back shutouts against Parkway (41-0) and New Bremen (40-0) for the best start in program history.
Senior Wes Wenning said the winning streak was possible because of the team’s ability to trust what it was being taught.
“We know the coaches are going to put us in the right position to make plays,” he said, noting the work they had put in during the offseason helped as well.
 Niekamp said that as the season went on the Indians were still trying to find their identity with a number of players in new positions.
“A lot of it was sort of finding our way in some areas,” he said, pointing to the offensive line and most positions on defense. “(They) just slowly got better every week.”

The loss
Fort Recovery’s longest winning streak was halted Oct. 9 at home with a 14-12 defeat to 2014 Division VI state champion Minster. The Indians scored on each of their first two drives to lead 12-0, but had a number of mistakes pile on top of one another down the stretch.
“Starting off 6-0 was great, but losing those games kind of brought us back down to Earth,” Wenning said. “Then we realized we’re not as good as we want to be yet. We knew we could be a lot better.”
Losing by two at home is tough, but imagine being shut out the following week, 28-0, to another 2014 state champion. Marion Local, the Division VII champ last year, did just that in handing the Indians their second consecutive loss.
“The good thing about those games is we were able to learn about ourselves, go forward and not let those deter us from our final goal,” Niekamp said. “All of our goals at that time were still intact but we knew we had to get better.”

The comeback
The Indians responded to back-to-back losses with a hard-fought, 8-7 home victory the following week against the St. Henry Redskins.
Niekamp said after that win, he felt his team had started to make a comeback.
“The St. Henry game was incredible,” he said. “That is one of those games that could have gone either way …
“I felt like we started to hit our stride with the momentum from that game.”
The Indians, at that point 7-2 overall and 5-2 in the Midwest Athletic Conference, had just tied the record for most wins in a season. A week later, the Tribe dismantled the Versailles Tigers in the second half to win 27-13 and finish the regular season with the most overall (eight) and conference (six) wins in team history.
“At that point in time we put together our best game of the season,” Niekamp said.
“Playing in the MAC, no week is given,” Wenning said. “We know we had to earn those two games and once we did it made us feel good about ourselves and propelled ourselves into the playoffs.”

The rematch
Fort Recovery earned a No. 3 seed in Region 26, allowing it to host the a playoff game for the first time.
Sophomore running back Will Homan scored four touchdowns, helping the Indians to an opening-round win against Miami Valley Christian Academy, 62-34. It set up a semifinal match with Lehman Catholic in Lima.
The Indians’ offense started slowly, but the defense was stellar all game in a 20-3 defeat of the Cavaliers. Meanwhile, top-seeded Minster beat Riverside 21-6 to set up a rematch between the Wildcats and Indians in Sidney, for the regional championship.
A steady diet of Homan —he carried the ball 39 times for 242 yards and two touchdowns — and a stout defense held a potent Minster offense in check, as the Indians won by two scores. Fort Recovery had a 33-14 lead midway through the final quarter, but gave up a touchdown before a late interception by Tanner Koch sealed the win.
“I came off the field feeling the same way when I came off the field at Versailles,” Niekamp said. “I walked off thinking, ‘That’s the best we’ve played all year.’”

The opponent
In its run to Friday’s matchup, McComb defeated No. 8 seed Crestview 27-26 in the opening round of the Region 24 tournament. It then knocked off fourth-seeded Leipsic 35-12 in the semifinal before limiting Lucas to just six points.
The Panthers are a run-heavy team, led by Jake Crouse’s 1,358 rushing yards and 19 touchdowns. Quarterback Malachi Abbott has added 644 rushing yards and five scores, and Kheagan Loe has 11 TDs.
“This is the biggest team we have seen up front all year,” Niekamp said. McComb averaged more than 270 rushing yards during the regular season. “They are really big up front.”
Abbott has also thrown for more than 2,200 yards and 28 touchdowns.
McComb’s defense is just as stout. It allows only eight points per game and has shut out five opponents.
The only common foe the Panthers have with the Indians is Marion Local. The Flyers beat the Panthers 26-22 to open the season.
As was the case with the last three games, Niekamp said winning the line of scrimmage will crucial Friday.
“That is going to be a challenge,” he said. “That has been our strength recently — stopping the run, being able to run the ball and play well up front.
“We may have some mismatches in the skill positions. I think we have some speed in some areas that might be tough that we might be able to take advantage of.”