Indians' defense dominates Cardinals

NEW BREMEN, Ohio — There has been one word to describe the Tribe defense so far this season — dominant.
The Fort Recovery High School football team’s defense and special teams flexed their muscles again Friday night, scoring a pair of touchdowns and turning in their second shutout in a row in a 40-0 destruction of the New Bremen Cardinals.
It marked the third shutout of the season for the Division VII No. 3 Indians, who battered Parkway 41-0 last week and opened their season with a 36-0 blitzing of Lehman Catholic. They have given up just 38 points in all this season, an average of 6.33 per game.
Fort Recovery (6-0, 4-0 Midwest Athletic Conference) showed its strength immediately Friday when Adam LeFevre sacked Avery Powers on the opening play of the game. The Cardinals (1-5, 0-4 MAC) were held to a three-and-out, and Jason Roessner blocked Ben Kuck’s attempt at a punt. Nate Ontrop scooped the ball up and carried it 30 yards for a touchdown.
Held to a three-and-out again late in the opening half, Ross Homan blocked another Kuck punt try. He didn’t need any help, picking the ball up himself and running 25 yards to the end zone to make the score 27-0.
The Indians’ defense stayed strong throughout the second half, never allowing New Bremen to reach the red zone. The Cardinals managed just 130 yards of total offense, an average of 2.6 yards per play.
Andrew Stocker wreaked havoc in the New Bremen backfield with 4.5 tackles for a loss and one sack. He recorded 12 tackles in all and forced a fumble, and Roessner added nine tackles.
Meanwhile, when the FRHS special teams wasn’t scoring, its running game churned for more than 200 yards.
Kyle Schroer led the way with 108 yards on just 11 attempts, including TD runs of 12 yards in the opening quarter and 6 yards in the second. Quarterback Caleb Martin reached the end zone on a 40-yard run in the third quarter for most of his 60 rushing yards, and Roessner (43 yards) capped the scoring with a 16-yard touchdown run on the opening play of the final period.
Martin also completed 8-of-13 passes for 93 yards, with Wes Wenning hauling in four catches for 44 yards.
Fort Recovery is 6-0 for the first time in its history — it had never opened as season with more than three consecutive wins — and shares the MAC lead with undefeated Division VI No.1 Marion Local and undefeated Division V No. 1 Coldwater. The Indians put will put their perfect record on the line Friday when they host the Division VII No. 7 Minster Wildcats (4-2, 2-2 MAC), who won the 2014 Division VI state title and whose only losses this year are to the aforementioned Flyers and Cavaliers.