Wenning in the MAC

DELPHOS, Ohio — There have been a plethora of yellow flags thrown on the Indians in the 2025 season.

During the week of practice, the Tribe dedicated a large portion of practice to staying disciplined and watching the ball to not pick up unnecessary penalties and give away free yards. 

Despite Drake Fittro trying to draw the Indians offsides on every play outside of one drive, the line didn’t bite and the defensive pressure it provided played a key role in shutting the Bluejays out.

The Fort Recovery High School football team’s defense locked down the St. John’s Bluejays on Saturday to pick up the third victory of the season and the first in the Midwest Athletic Conference with a 41-0 margin.

“We knew it was going to be a weird game battling some adversities, coming out here on a Saturday at 1:30 it was going to be hot in the middle of the day on a turf field,” said first-year FRHS coach Wes Wenning. “A lot of strange things to battle throughout the week and we stayed on that daily. …

“(Getting that first MAC win) is very important. We needed this momentum, especially against a well-coached team. I feel like their record and some of those scores don’t accurately indicate how well coached this football team is and how good of athletes they have. For us to bend, not break and for us to just finish the game from start to finish was huge riding into a homecoming week against New Bremen.”

While the Tribe (3-2, 1-2 MAC) has had some clean games, its week 2 win over Allen East was particularly bad with 80 yards of penalties on 11 flags. The FRHS defensive line knew that it needed to be disciplined to beat St. John’s (0-5, 0-3 MAC) as Fittro, the quarterback, would try to get the Tribe offsides on every play before turning to the sideline to get the real play.

“St. John’s was circled in our book as a team that’s potentially going to be a lot of penalties if we’re not disciplined,” said linebacker Luke Lochtefeld. “In practice this week we had different disciplines and ways to not make that happen anymore and keep repping and repping and repping and this is the result. We got fewer penalties and that’s to come the rest of the year.”

The defensive line held strong, only jumping offsides once in the fourth quarter. As a result, the line and linebackers sacked Fittro three times for a loss of 21 yards, had 10 tackles for a loss and put constant defensive pressure leading to a pair of interceptions. In total, St. John’s had 168 yards of offense on  46 plays.

“It was huge and it always deflates the offense and gives room for us to run different sets on our defense to put more pressure on the quarterback," Lochtefeld said. “Which ends up causing more of those interceptions.”

While the defense locked the Bluejays down the Tribe offense got to work early.

The first two plays for Fort Recovery went to Reece Wendel, who secured a first down before Alex Gaerke slung a 21-yard pass to Colson Post down the left sideline. Gaerke then ran the ball himself and found gaps on the left side of the field to go the full 48 yards for an early touchdown.

“It was really just the plays before that, setting that up” Gaerke said. “When that came around, that hole wasn’t the biggest hole I’ve ever seen, but it was a pretty big hole. Then being able to beat that defender to the outside and get that stiff arm really pushed me.”

St. John’s made it to the red zone only one time following Gaerke’s touchdown. However, that’s when Fittro threw one of his two interceptions and Brody Barga took the ball all the way from the Indians’ five-yard line to the Bluejays’ 19.

Fort Recovery immediately scored as it feigned a wildcat set, instead having Breaker Jutte find Post for a screen pass on the left side for an easy score.

The first quarter, along with the third and fourth, went perfectly for the Tribe offense as it scored on every drive. The second period ended as the only blip for FRHS as it was forced to punt twice.

“I think we stopped passing the ball as much and spreading them out a bit more,” Gaerke said. “But also, their d-line was big. Our guys were not sticking to their technique, which they did the first quarter and after halftime.”

The Indians scored three times in the third quarter including a six-yard rush from Wendel, a 42-yard reception for Post and an 11-yard pass to Jutte. Brody Hart scored the sole fourth-quarter touchdown on a carry from the one-yard line.

With the first MAC victory under the Tribe’s belt, it will look to improve its resume when a 4-1 (2-1 MAC) New Bremen comes to town for Homecoming.

“It’s going to be a big week,” Wenning said. “It’s any given Friday out here in these MAC football games, so I’m very excited to start prepping New Bremen.”