Anna Comes Back To Stun Minster, End Wildcats’ Perfect Season

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Anna’s 10-point comeback stunned Minster, dealing the Wildcats their first loss and putting the Rockets back on track. Brody Murray’s 61-yard circus touchdown catch highlighted Anna’s best performance of the season.

Anna, Ohio – A moment suspended in time:

The football floats in the air, batted up but not away by Minster’s Brendan Halpin. It dangles above Anna wideout Brody Murray for about an hour, maybe longer. Somehow, only one tick comes off the clock. Now it reads 6:27, Q4.

Freeze it. Frame it. Hang it on the walls.

It’s Anna’s moment of a rivalry reclaimed, a dying season resurrected, a homecoming salvaged, and a centennial win for head coach Nick Marino.

Murray snatched it out of the air, shook a tackle, and dashed the second half of a 61-yard completion to the pylon, cutting Minster’s lead to one point.

“We’ve been repping that play all week in practice,” Murray said. “It never went like that, though. But I saw the ball in the air and had to go make a play.”

Seventy yards behind the celebration, a yellow flag threatened to spoil Anna’s comeback. Instead, the referee announced a roughing the passer foul, moving the PAT a few critical feet closer to the goal line. Marino rolled the dice, leaving the offense on the field to take the lead. Quarterback Logan Ziegenbusch sneaked it in to pay off the gamble.

FINAL: Anna 14, Minster 13

Of Marino’s 100 wins as the Rockets’ main man, the stunning 14-13 victory over Minster stands as one of the best, at least in the regular season.

“This was maybe the most exciting, we saved it for 100,” Marino said.

It marked Anna’s first win against Minster since 2021.

The 10-point comeback win will change the trajectory and memory of the 2026 season for the Rockets. But the degree of that truth remains up in the air. The Rockets jumped from 16th in Region 24 to 13th, a single spot out of playoff position. A win against St. John’s may not do the trick, but you would think a second against Coldwater (6-1) or Versailles (4-3) would push them up and in.

A clear path to November football is a lot more to lean on than Anna had 24 hours ago.

But those in attendance won’t remember the records, rankings, or implications. They’ll just remember that something about that win felt different. 

“We’ve had our ups and downs this year for sure,” Murray said. “But we’re definitely united as a team, and it feels good to come out with a win.”

The Rockets had every reason not to get their hopes up for the Minster game. They were 3-3, Minster was 6-0. They needed a shocking win to even start thinking about the postseason. The Wildcats all but punched their ticket before flipping their calendars to October.

Then you toss in a 10-0 halftime lead for the Wildcats, and you might as well quit, right? Wrong.

“The kids just kept fighting,” Marino said not once, not twice, but three times. “The kids just kept fighting … It was the fight of the group to not give up and keep fighting the entire game.”

Sense a theme? If fight and resolve could be measured, the Rockets would’ve broken every instrument.

And how’s this for perseverance: Anna’s offense went 0-for-10 on third down, but 5-for-7 on fourth, including a fake punt that extended the game-winning drive.

After their miraculous go-ahead score, they had to get Carson Kaylor and the Minster offense off the field twice. And they didn’t have a full 75-yard runway to do it, because Minster’s Beckhem Stephey is the best kicker in the MAC.

The Rocket defense won round one when Julian Stearns got a tackle for loss, then a sack to force fourth-and-15, which fell incomplete.

“Our mentality was to each do our one-eleventh,” Stearns said. “We don’t need any extraordinary plays, we just need extraordinary discipline. That means doing your one-eleventh.”

The Wildcats got the ball back with 1:34 to go. But Jake Kipp’s sack brought up fourth-and-10. Kaylor scrambled, and a cloud of green converged and bottled him up one yard short of converting, sending the bigger green crowd in the stands into a frenzy.

“It’s Minster, so you know with the rivalry, the crowd was like Stadium Pulse in EA’s NCAA Football game all night,” Stearns said.

“Hats off to them,” Minster coach Seth Whiting said. “They came out and figured out how to win a game. Their back was against the wall … so they found a way to get it done. Good for them.”

As for the Minster side, it hurts. But looking forward, the short version is that they’ll be fine. 

“Our kids are resilient,” Whiting said. “They’ll bounce back from this. We’ll get back tomorrow morning and fix our mistakes … We don’t need to change what we do … Every one of these games is just a speed bump on the way to where we’re trying to go, and we got tripped up on this one today.”

The ‘Cats are 6-1, still third in Region 28, and control their own destiny for a share of the MAC title, though it would require doing what no team has done in over half a decade in a Week 9 trip to Maria Stein. Marion Local now sits alone atop the MAC standings at 7-0 (5-0 MAC).

Minster learned its boat has some leaks, but it’s not going under, and the Wildcats have the materials to plug holes. Maybe getting their bell rung isn’t the worst thing.

Anna’s 3-3-5 defense put defensive backs in a good position to slow down Minster’s potent passing attack. Kaylor threw for 81 yards, less than half his season average.

On the ground, Anna’s front six tackled well enough to cover for the missing seventh helmet in the box.

The other side of the ball took Anna a while to establish. Each team only had three first-half possessions. The Rockets spent theirs on a three-and-out, a goal-line turnover on downs, and a Hail Mary interception to end the half. Minster scored a nine-yard touchdown via Ty Hein’s legs, and notched another three points off Stephey’s left leg. That field goal marked the first of Anna’s two key red zone stops.

Ziegenbusch came out firing in the second half, leading a touchdown drive with 69 passing yards. He heavily featured wideout Tyson Vaubel, who finished with five catches for 71 yards. Ziegenbusch capped the drive with a 5-yard pitch-and-catch touchdown to Kale Hoying. The extra point doinked off the right upright back into the end zone.

As the fourth quarter started, the Rockets dug in for another red zone stop, forcing another field goal which gave the Wildcats a 13-6 advantage.

Anna quickly stalled at its own 28, but Ziegenbusch, also the punter, faked a punt and ran it to convert on fourth-and-two.

On fourth-and-three, he again tucked and ran an option keeper, powering for exactly the three he needed.

Then, after a gut-punching holding penalty, Ziegenbusch found Murray on the 61-yard touchdown they’ll never forget.

The defense held on to clinch the win, which the team wasn’t told would be Marino’s 100th.

“We had zero clue all week how big this was,” Stearns said. “We just now found out, which makes it all the more special.”

“Both my brothers won state championships with [Marino],” Murray added. “So it means a lot to me to get his 100th.”

Next week they travel to Coldwater, and a stunner for number 101 would be just as much fun.