FRHS stuns ’Cats in OT

MINSTER, Ohio — To have a realistic chance of climbing the computer rankings and making the playoffs for the fourth straight year, the Indians needed a big win on the resume.

Beating the fourth-ranked team in the state just might do the trick.

Fort Recovery High School’s football team went for an all-or-nothing two-point conversion in overtime Friday night and workhorse running back Will Homan converted it to complete a 28-27 victory over the Division VII No. 4 Minster Wildcats.

The Indians (3-2, 2-1 Midwest Athletic Conference), who were 11th in the initial Division VI Region computer points released this week, needed a late touchdown drive just to force overtime. And once they got there, Minster (3-2, 1-2 MAC) again put the Indians in a seven-point hole.

It took the Tribe no time at all to respond to Jared Huelsman’s 14-yard TD run in overtime, as a 20-yard TD pass from its new quarterback (freshman Clay Schmitz) to its former signal caller (senior Cade Wendel) closed the gap back to one.

Coach Brent Niekamp had a choice: kick the extra point to tie the game or go for two and the win. He put the game in Homan’s hands and the senior running back, who had 154 yards on 26 carries, delivered the victory.

Homan’s run ended a back-and-forth game that saw the Wildcats score first only to have Fort Recovery come up with consecutive TDs for a 14-7 lead. Minster responded with a pair of touchdowns of its own, leaving the visitors trailing 20-14 when they got the ball with 5:50 remaining.

The Indians embarked on a methodical drive, mixing Homan runs with short Schmitz tosses to get down to the Minster 19-yard line. Then Schmitz took off himself, picking up 11 yards before handing off the ball to Homan to take it inside the 10.

On the next play — the 11th of the drive — Schmitz ran 8 yards for the game-tying score.

Cole Wendel missed the extra-point attempt and then Minster’s offense stalled, setting the stage for overtime.

Schmitz was 10-of-20 in his quarterbacking debut, which included a pair of touchdown passes to Wendel (68 yards receiving). Homan added to his rushing effort with three catches for 22 yards.

Minster, led by do-everything quarterback Jared Huelsman — he completed 16 passes for 188 yards and a touchdown, and ran 18 times for 153 yards and three touchdowns — out-gained the Indians 372-315, but it wasn’t enough.

Fort Recovery will try to win consecutive games for the first time this season Friday when it hosts the Versailles Tigers (1-4, 0-3 MAC).