By GARY R. RASBERRY
grasberry@dailystandard.com
It can be called a moving week in the Midwest Athletic Conference
this week as teams look to get closer to have a shot at the
conference title.
Among the games this week, St. Henry looks to prevent an 0-3
MAC start with a home game with New Bremen, Marion Local travels
to Parkway and Fort Recovery, fresh off a 42-0 loss to Minster,
faces a Versailles team that put up 70 points against Lehman
last week.
Coldwater will keep hold of its share of the MAC lead in heading
to the Hoosier State to face Fort Wayne Elmhurst in the bye
week game.
The marquee game this week features the Minster team that had
a big win last week facing a St. John’s team that finally
broke its offensive slump against Parkway in scoring 54 points
while continuing a strong defense that has allowed just three
points this season.
The Wildcats, 2-1 overall and 1-1 in the MAC, are coming off
a strong outing at Fort Recovery. Minster has been playing strong
all season with the defense showing some strength this season.
“That was a good game for the guys after coming off a
tough loss to Versailles,” said Minster head coach Whit
Parks. “The kids were able to get some confidence back
knowing that they have to face another of the top teams in the
MAC this week.”
Parks’ old-school single-wing offense provides plenty
of weapons for a team to counter.
“They have played us well the last couple of years,”
said St. John’s coach Todd Schulte, referring to last
season’s game especially when the Jays held on for a 20-16
win at Stadium Park. “The thing with Minster is that offense.
You don’t see that a whole lot so Minster is a team that
takes a lot to prepare for that offense.”
Senior quarterback Scott Sherman provides the passing threat
of the single wing. Sherman leads MAC quarterbacks in The Daily
Standard Quarterback Rating department with a 195.33 rating.
Sherman’s favorite target has been senior Jon Kaylor,
who has six catches for 130 yards and two touchdowns in 2003.
The rushing attack once again is led by 5-7 junior Ty Parks.
The returning first-team all-Ohio back has been slowly coming
back from a summer baseball injury to rush for 201 yards on
38 carries and four touchdowns this season. Junior Brian Hoelscher
has been a strong compliment to Parks, picking up 96 yards while
Parks was limited in the opening win against Spencerville and
has averaged 9.4 yards per carry in running the the ball 14
times this season.”
“They are a very balanced team,” said Schulte. “Coach
Parks does a great job in putting the team together. They have
a good running game with Ty Parks and Sherman does a great job
passing the ball.”
The Blue Jays are coming off a huge 54-0 win over Parkway in
the first big offensive explosion of the season. After having
trouble in the first half getting any big scores in the first
two games of the season, St. John’s responded scored 13
points in the first quarter and added 20 in the second quarter.
“That has been a concern going into the game,” said
Schulte. “We’ve had trouble scoring early in the
game. We won the toss and wanted to go out on offense. We had
a good drive and scored right away.
“Last week was the first week that we have a good four
quarters of football put together,” said Schulte. “That
was key for us. Usually you see an improvement from week one
to week two and we didn’t have it. We had that improvement
from week two to week three.”
The Blue Jays continued its strong running attack against the
Panthers. Junior tailback Matt Shumaker came up with a 216-yard
attack that saw him break into the end zone six times against
the Panthers.
Coach Parks knows that stopping Shumaker is a key, but not the
only key.
“Obviously, we have to stop Shumaker, but we can’t
focus everything on him,” said Parks. “Jesse Kill
(14-of-23 passing for 214 yards, 131 rushing yards) is a weapon
in running the option and passing the ball. St. John’s
has been explosive on offense and can be explosive on defense.”
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