New Bremen’s Jacob Kelly plows through Ansonia tacklers on his way to 200 all-purpose yards in the Cardinals win over Ansonia. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Logan Howard)
New Bremen’s Jacob Kelly ran wild in the opening round of the playoffs as the #10 seed New Bremen Cardinals took down the #7 seed Ansonia Tigers. The Cardinal defense held Ansonia to a season-low 154 yards.
New Bremen’s junior running back Jacob Kelly is a bit old for trick or treating, but that didn’t stop him from being Superman for Halloween. Kelly put on his cape Friday and collected over 200 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns, leading the Cardinals to a 36-8 win in the opening round of the 2025 playoffs.
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His versatile style kept Ansonia (8-3) guessing where he would gash them next. He ran between the tackles, around the edge, and took screen passes with relatively equivalent success. His three scores all came on the ground.
“What was working well was a lot of our gap schemes,” Kelly said. “I was running through first contact, and the guys up front were doing great up there. All around, it was just a good game.”
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Kelly did to Ansonia what Ansonia has done to the WOAC all season. The Tigers averaged 347 yards per game rushing. Both of their backs – Jacob Schmitmeyer and Lander Shives – rank top five in rushing in the WOAC. But they hadn’t faced a MAC defense yet. The Cardinals limited Ansonia to 154 yards on 39 carries, just under four yards per attempt. The Tigers’ previous season low rushing was 223 yards in a running-clock shutout win.
“We kinda felt like it was gonna take some time to settle in and adjust,” New Bremen head coach Chris Schmidt said. “And they still moved the ball on us at times. We just were able to find ways to get off the field a few times.
Defensive tackle Neven Trentman helped spearhead New Bremen’s King Size defensive line, which devoured Ansonia’s ball carriers with the urgency of a kid freshly home from Beggar’s night.
“We just had to fine-tune what we’ve been doing,” Trentman said. “We needed to have a little more tenacity than what we’ve been playing with. We did a good job stepping it up this week.”
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The Tigers’ offense relies on misdirection and an excess of powerful blockers to run the ball. They lineup with one or no wide receivers. It’s no secret the call is a run, but the question is who and where. Quarterback Layne Bowman is also a capable ball carrier, giving defenses three threats to account for on every down.
“It is tough,” Schmidt said. “We tried to give the best look we could in practice with our scout team, and they did a great job. But you know it’s not the same … We see a lot in the MAC, but we don’t see that.”
Linebacker Jaylen Powell reaches to make a tackle on an Ansonia Tiger running back.
But the Cardinals didn’t bite the many fakes and misdirects. The front line, starring Trentman, Aaron Wuebker, Ryan Leichliter, Pierce Whitlatch, and others maintained gap integrity and tackled consistently, which prevented explosive plays.
“We asked our kids to do their assignment as best they can,” Schmidt said. “You can’t be about making a tackle this week, or making a big play. It’s just ‘do your job’ so we can try to slow them down.”
Without much fear of the pass, the Cardinals’ deepest defenders were sometimes as shallow as six or seven yards off the line of scrimmage, ready to swarm whichever member of Ansonia’s trio carried the ball.
“They’re a big physical team,” Ansonia head coach Adam Hall said. “I felt like at times we were doing a good job, but we just weren’t sustaining our blocks like we needed to.”
#10 New Bremen goes back on the road next week with revenge on its mind against #2 St. Henry, which not only beat the Cardinals 20-0 two weeks ago, but also knocked them out of the playoffs last season.
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“We’ve had some really tough battles with them, really physical games,” Schmidt said. “We gotta rest up this weekend and be ready to roll. We’re pretty familiar with each other, so I expect another physical battle.”
New Bremen’s defense largely held its own in the week nine showdown, but the offense needs to spark.
Cardinals’ receiver Gavin Quellhorst gathers in a pass during Friday’s win over Ansonia.
Kelly might need to reprise his Superman role. If he shows up as just Clark Kent, the burden will weigh heavily on Dicke to move the chains. That game script forced Dicke into a more prominent role in the week 9 matchup, and St. Henry blanked the Cardinals.
“We’re gonna come in with a big chip on our shoulder,” Kelly said. “We played these guys two weeks ago. We know they’re not invincible. I think we’re gonna have a good week of practice, then come in with a lion mentality, and be ready to kill ‘em.”
Ansonia finishes 8-3, without a WOAC title share for the first time since 2021. It rattled off five straight wins to end the regular season to salvage much of what could have been a down year for the program.
“I’m extremely proud of these guys,” Hall said. “What sticks out to me is how much we’ve improved since week one, and really how much we’ve improved in the last five weeks. In the middle of the season we weren’t playing great football. But down the stretch we played pretty well.”
The Tigers have had some postseason success of late, but undoubtedly suffer from the misfortune of playing in Region 28. A MAC team has ended each of their last five seasons.
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In this rendition of Ansonia vs the MAC, the first quarter flew by like a witch on a broomstick as both teams kept the clock rolling. Eight runs and a completion by New Bremen gnawed at the clock until Kelly powered into the end zone from 11 yards.
Ansonia’s first drive bridged the first and second quarters, featuring 11 rushes for 34 yards and a turnover on downs.
Ansonia’s Jacob Schmitmeyer looks for running room, but held under the Tigers per game average.
Kelly took the next snap through the heart of Ansonia’s defense, 57 yards to the house. And he wasn’t done haunting that house quite yet.
The Cardinals forced a three-and-out and capitalized with a field goal after a poor punt. Kicker Aiden Eastham redeemed a missed extra point by striping a 33-yarder for a 16-0 lead halfway through the second quarter.
Ansonia broke its two longest plays on consecutive snaps. First, Bowman fooled everyone with a fake handoff and ran left for 34 yards, then threw a dime in stride to Luke Ressler for a 25-yard touchdown. In a win, that sequence could’ve been remembered as the “trick-and-treat,” but alas, no such luck for the Tiger faithful.
Schmitmeyer scored two on a toss for the conversion and a 16-8 halftime score.
A question loomed over a nervous Cardinal crowd. Was that a fluke right before the half? Or was Ansonia starting to wear their defense down? They didn’t have to wait long for an answer.
Jacob Kelly stiff-arms a would-be tackler in the second half of Friday’s Div. VII playoff game with Ansonia.
New Bremen allowed a first down right at the marker, then put Ansonia behind the sticks to force a punt.
“You just have to have a mindset that you’re gonna do it no matter what,” Trentman said. “When you get tired in the second half, that’s when it really matters.”
Screens to Kelly picked up a pair of first downs, then he ran for a third. A strike to Gavin Quellhorst made up for a holding penalty and put the Cardinals on the 4-yard line. Who else? Kelly plunged in for his third touchdown. That’s a hat trick sweeter than Three Musketeers.
The rout was on from there. Ansonia went three-and-out, and Dicke found Quellhorst again for 46 yards, right back to the 4-yard line. This time Dicke snuck it in for a 30-8 lead.
Defensive back Tommy McNaughton ended any hope of a comeback with a tackle to force four-and-out. Dicke hit Quellhorst one last time, a 20-yard touchdown for a 36-8 win. He completed all six pass attempts in the second half for 137 yards. His all-purpose number also crossed the double-century mark.
And now, with plenty of momentum and even more motivation, the Cardinals are out for blood in the quarterfinals in St. Henry. Sounds spooky.
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