Indians fall to St. Henry

ST. HENRY, Ohio — The Indians had little trouble marching down the field on their first two drives.
The Redskin defense stood tough the rest of the game, while their offense methodically picked apart the Tribe
St. Henry scored 21 straight points and limited the Division VII No. 10 Fort Recovery High School football team to just one scoring play in the second half in a 35-21 victory Friday night.
“We had a tough time blocking them in the second half,” said FRHS coach Brent Niekamp, whose team ends the regular season 6-4 (4-4 Midwest Athletic Conference).
Playoff pairings will be announced Sunday.
“It was hard to tell what they had going up front,” he added. “They were being really aggressive. They sold out to stop the run game.”
St. Henry (7-3, 6-2 MAC), which is also on its way to the postseason, was able to use a steady mix of blitzes to disrupt the timing of Fort Recovery quarterback Caleb Martin. Early in the game, the University of Toledo commit had plenty of protection when he dropped back to pass, but in the third and fourth quarters his time in the pocket was limited and he was occasionally hit as he threw.
“The big difference tonight than say last week (a 31-0 loss to Marion Local) is we started playing (man-to-man) and sending a lot of blitzes,” St. Henry coach Brad Luthman said. “Our corners and safeties held up this week. Last week they didn’t.
“They stepped up when we needed them to and got ourselves in the playoffs.”
Tied 14-all at halftime, Fort Recovery’s opening drive of the second half ended on the first of two Martin interceptions. Paul Wourms picked off a fade route at the St. Henry 15-yard line, and two plays later Redskin quarterback Daylon Lange hit Ryan Luttmer for a 34-yard screen pass on third-and-15. Lange — he was 11-of-15 passing for 211 yards — connected with Tyler Schlarman on three of the next four plays to get the Redskins inside the red zone, and Blake Hoyng scored from the 5-yard line for a 21-14 St. Henry lead.
Fort Recovery’s next two drives stalled at the St. Henry 6- and 25-yard lines respectively. The Indians forced the Redskins to a three-and-out, but the punt went 68 yards to the FRHS 21-yard line. Three plays later, Conner Bruggeman stepped in front of another Martin pass, intercepting it at the 35-yard line and returning it 30 yards.
Jaren Fishbaugh — he led St. Henry with 80 yards on 13 carries and added a 1-yard TD run in the first quarter — punched it in on the next play to make it 28-14 with 6:17 to play in the fourth quarter.
St. Henry’s defense knocked down a Martin pass at the line of scrimmage to start the next FRHS possession, then brought Martin down in the backfield for a 10-yard sack on second down. A punt two plays later led to a steady diet of St. Henry’s running game and a 1-yard touchdown run from Lange with 1:35 to play.