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[ PREVIOUS STORIES ]

09-11-03: Wildcats hope to hamper Blue Jays

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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