Coldwater’s Miles Pottkotter fights for yardage in the fourth quarter to set up the game-winning field goal. He finished with 122 yards rushing and two touchdowns. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Sonny Fulks)
Classic MAC, and classic Coldwater…Cavaliers move to 5-0 with thrilling second half comeback…and a kick at the end to hand Minster its first loss.
Minster, OH – For those who are prone to question – those whose glass is always half empty – Coldwater coach Chip Otten is again making his annual statement after Friday’s heart-stopping 24-21 win over the Minster Wildcats.
The win moved Coldwater to 5-0 for the season, #1 in the Joe Eitel Division VI, Region 24 list, and solidified the Cavaliers’ #2 ranking in the weekly Division VI Max Preps Power Poll, trailing only (who else?) Kirtland.
Of course critics of high school football are always quick to ask. “Sure, 5-0, but who have you beaten?” And this year no area team in any division makes a stronger argument over strength of schedule than Otten and Coldwater – Valley View (Div. IV, former state champion), Clinton-Massie (Div. IV, former state champion), and Anna (former state champion), ranked #6 this week in that same Max Prep power poll for Division VI.
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Add to that now, Minster (three-time state champion, now 4-1), who was listed at #4 in the Max Preps poll for Division VII.
Statement? Coldwater’s latest was Friday’s impressive slugfest, a game that featured headliner quarterbacks Baylen Blockberger and Minster’s Brogan Stephey…a game that saw Coldwater outgained by Minster 298 to 259, but outrushed the Wildcats 144 to 96. 122 of those yards belonged to senior Miles Pottkotter (on 16 carries), who took a physical pounding, but his yards after contact and two touchdowns were the difference in the game.
That, and a game-winning 32 yard field goal with a little over a minute left on the clock by junior Bryce Couchot, who with the weight of the weekend on his shoulders was as cool as spring water, driving the ball through the heart of the uprights…a kick that would have been good from at least 45 yards.
Kicker Bryce Couchot eyes the winning kick that put Coldwater ahead in the final minute of the game.
“I had the opportunity to go out there, make the kick, and bring home the win for my team,” said a smiling Couchot, afterwards. “The snap, spot, and protection were all perfect. I hit it right down the middle.”
It marked the first loss of the season for Minster, but the competitive quality of the game was such that afterwards Minster coach Seth Whiting could only pay tribute to the collective efforts. His own quarterback rushed for 76 yards and threw for 202…while Baylen Blockberger was more understated, just 8 yards on the ground and 115 through the air.
“Just a tremendous high school football game,” he said. “They just made one more play than us.”
Minster struck first at 3:09 of the first quarter after an interception of a tipped pass from Stephey. Pottkotter rumbled for 32 yards, shedding tacklers in his wake, to put the Cavaliers up, 7-0.
In the opening moments of the second quarter Minster’s Connor Schmiesing rang the bell on a 16 yard run through the heart of the Coldwater secondary, scoring to tie the score at 7-7.
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After a Coldwater turnover Minster again took advantage of a short field, Schmiesing scoring from two yards out with 4:25 left to put the Wildcats ahead, 14-7.
Coldwater can do a lot of things offensively with four minutes to work with, and Baylen Blockberger promptly moved them down the field and inside the ten yard line with under a minute left in the first half. But on second and goal he threw to the end zone and right into the hands of Minster’s secondary for an interception that killed the drive and ended the half with Minster ahead, 14-7.
The good hands people…Minster’s Tyler Bergman lays out to make this first half catch in Friday’s game with Coldwater.
Coldwater got the second half kick and Blockberger again turned the ball over with an interception to give Minster field position at the fifty yard line. But Connor Schmiesing promptly gave the ball right back with a fumble, and Blockberger used the reprieve to move the Cavaliers into the Minster red zone, where Pottkotter scored his second touchdown on a 24-yard run with 7:13 remaining in the quarter. The game was tied, 14-14.
The shift in momentum was palpable as Coldwater then used a second interception of Stephey, by Mason Welsch, to stall a Minster drive with two minutes left in the third quarter. Seven plays and 58 yards later Blockberger found Caleb Schroer in the end zone with 25 seconds on the clock for a 19 yard touchdown pass, giving Coldwater even more momentum and a 21-14 lead.
To the point about Minster being an excellent football team, Brogan Stephey promptly came back, moving the ball downfield in 11 plays to first down and goal at the five yard line. Stephey went right, then the middle, and finally around the end to tie the score at 21-21 on a three-yard run at 7:22.
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After a positive kick return by Braxton Taylor, Blockberger began moving the ball downfield, Minster’s defense stiffened at midfield, and forced a key third down and 10. After a timeout, Blockberger got nine of it with a pass above two defenders that Mason Welsch snagged for a catch, but short of the line to gain. Needing a foot on fourth down, Otten rolled the dice once more with Miles Pottkotter, who fought off a couple of tacklers to get the first down and extend the drive.
Coldwater’s Sam Rismiller (#54) eyes a sack opportunity on Minster quarterback Brogan Stephey.
Now slamming the ball with the running game, and with the clock ticking down, Coldwater again stalled at the Minster 14 yard line, but not before Pottkotter had centered the ball between the hash marks and better position for a field goal attempt. Otten sent Bryce Couchot out from 31 yards to put the Cavaliers ahead. The snap was perfect, the hold was perfect, and Couchot drove the ball high and through the middle of the uprights….24-21.
With 1:40 remaining still on the clock, Couchot then drove the kickoff into the end zone for a touchback, forcing Stephey and the Minster offense to start from its own twenty yard line. After three incomplete short passes he was faced with fourth and ten, and missed the first down attempt when teammate Dylan Heitkamp was contacted near the sideline on a pass that was just outside his reach. The Minster sideline looked for an interference call, the officials did not oblige, and Coldwater ran out the final minute on the clock to secure the win.
Classic Coldwater – Otten – is just this. In tough situations he finds a way, makes an adjustment at halftime, to put his team in position to win. Friday was no different, reminiscent of games in the past decade when he beat Marion Local with walk-off field goals. He paid tribute to the clutch third down catch by Mason Welsch to extend the winning drive in the fourth quarter.
Minster’s Connor Schmiesing eyes a Coldwater tackler and the end zone.
“Baylen made a play when we had all five guys in the route and protection-wise we were thin. Schmiesing came off the edge and had him, but he spun around and found Mason. Mason and Miles, when it’s crunch time they refuse to go down.
“But credit tonight to Stephey, because he can scramble, he can run, and he can throw. He’s just smooth. They’ve got three or four guys that can catch, and when they get Niemeyer back that adds another quality receiver.”
If football is a game of adjustments, Otten is a master, or a master motivator for the way his team took advantage of the third quarter.
“We did a bit of adjustment with how we thought we could run the ball,” he added. “But it wasn’t much, to be honest. We just kept going with what we do. And Miles Pottkotter…he refused to lose.”
122 yards, two touchdowns, and the competitive backbone of his team Friday, it was Pottkotter’s most complete game as a high school football player.
Coldwater’s defense puts the squeeze on Brogan Stephey’s attempt to score in the fourth quarter .
“In practice we work a lot on yards after contact,” he explained. “But I give all the credit to our O-line. They make the blocks, they make the holes, and Cody Depweg doesn’t get a lot of carries, but he’s a tremendous blocker.
“Tonight was just an awesome experience. On that fourth and one I looked up in the stands, they were playing the music, it was crazy, and it felt just like a video game. It was exactly what I dream of doing. The atmosphere…I love football, and I love the game.”
They’re not the most highly-touted, and they don’t have a 50-game win streak. But no other area 5-0 team can claim better strength of schedule, or more worthiness of their record.
Not as feared as Coldwater teams in the past, perhaps, it doesn’t seem to matter. You just do what you do…what you can with what you have.
Chip Otten’s annual statement.
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