St. Henry Smashes Minster, Moves To Second Place In The MAC.

St. Henry stunned Minster with a running clock on homecoming in a 48-12 Redskin win. Landon Schwartz began the rout with three passing touchdowns, and Drew Langenkamp sealed it with two more on the ground and a pick-six.

Minster, Oh – A 62-yard rushing touchdown, a pick-six, then a 67-yarder on the ground again: Which of Drew Langenkamp’s touchdowns will he think about the most?

“I hate to say it, but probably the touchdown that I dropped,” Langenkamp said.  

The potential touchdown he dropped in the first half didn’t matter in St. Henry’s shocking 48-12 pummeling of Minster. But the fact that he’s thinking about that more than his touchdown trifecta tells you exactly how the Redskins went from 0-2 to outright second place in the MAC.

St. Henry’s standard of excellence has brought it to 5-3, and 5-1 in the MAC, alone in second place behind Marion Local, thanks to the Anna Rockets, who knocked off Coldwater.

The ‘Skins also jumped from 12th to 8th in the Region 24 standings.

Early losses will probably keep St. Henry out of a first-round bye. But consider those losses. The Redskins, kneecapped by injuries, lost their first two to Celina (Div. III, 8-0) and Archbold (Div. V, 8-0). Then they dropped one to Marion Local (8-0), and who hasn’t?

“We played some really tough teams to start the season,” Langenkamp said. “But we knew what we had on this team. And we knew we had to stay true to what we have. Now we’re getting guys healthy, and we’re on the right track. We’re dangerous.”

Dangerous regardless of what number sits beside St. Henry’s name in the postseason. The Redskins are in it for the long haul. And could they have announced that any more clearly than with a running-clock win against a 6-1 MAC team?

“St. Henry’s kids were very physical, and they won the game,” Minster coach Seth Whiting said. “We made mistakes, but our mistakes didn’t make us lose the game. St. Henry won the game.”

Before Langenkamp bounded for his two long touchdowns, quarterback Landon Schwartz set it up by completing his first eight passes for 145 yards and three touchdowns.

“After the Marion game, Landon and I sat down and talked about getting back to proper reads and proper mechanics,” Werling said. “And he had a really good game tonight. So I’m really proud of him.”

He spread the ball around well, completing multiple passes to five different receivers.

Schwartz’s accuracy to his guys Tate Boeckman, Austin Zimmerman, and Will Gerlach – one touchdown apiece – opened gaping running lanes for Langenkamp in the second half.

“When you put in the work in the first half, you get to lean on your running game in the second,” Werling said. “That’s how you can ice those games away. In our league, that’s what good teams do.”

After just 30 yards on nine attempts in the first half, he exploded for 140 in the second half.

As impactful as he was on offense, Langenkamp might have been even better at middle linebacker.

You could find him at the center of every gang tackle, leading the charge against Minster’s tough run game. 

“That’s what our expectations of our captains are,” Werling said. “You wear the C on your helmet here, and you have a lot of history and pride in that. So we have that expectation of Drew, and boy did he deliver.”

He always wanders around before the snap, forcing opposing QBs to guess where he’ll end up by the time their eyes turn upfield.

In St. Henry’s biggest moment of doubt, he made an incredible individual play, reading Minster quarterback Carson Kaylor’s eyes, and floating into the right spot at the right time for a 33-yard pick-six to slam the door.

They held Minster to a single passing yard until they led by 28, and allowed just 3.9 yards per rush.

The Wildcats’ normally trusty offense has faltered twice in as many weeks, leaving Minster in an odd position. 

On one hand, the Wildcats are 6-2, and still ranked third in Region 28. Their only two losses are against high-quality MAC teams, and the one-point Anna loss looks even better after the Rockets beat Coldwater by two touchdowns.

On the other hand, they’re on a two-game losing streak, and unless they snap Marion Local’s half-decade-long regular-season win streak, it’ll read L3 in the streak column.

“We looked at our schedule and knew we were gonna have a stretch here that was gonna be brutal,” Whiting said. “And the objective is – obviously to go 3-0  – but to be sitting 2-1. And that’s not what we’re doing right now. So we gotta go to Marion and play better.”

Last week, Whiting called the Anna loss a speed bump on the way to where they want to get. So the question becomes, will they accelerate out of two or three speed bumps, or will their engine stall? Only the future can interpret the past.

But back to the present, St. Henry’s dominance began with the third phase, special teams. Will Speck returned a punt 56 yards to Minster’s 8-yard line just a couple of minutes into the game. 

Schwartz rolled right and hit Zimmerman on third-and-goal for a seven-yard score. Langenkamp ran in a two-point conversion.

St. Henry followed up the 8-yard touchdown drive with a 93-yard one. Near midfield, Werling dialed up the flea flicker. Gerlach beat his man and Schwartz heaved it over 50 yards in the air and into Gerlach’s bread basket as he crossed the goal line.

Schwartz said it might’ve been as far as he can physically throw it.

Langenkamp batted down a pass on third-and-nine to reclaim the ball, and the ‘Skins converted, this time on a 24-yard jump ball touchdown to Tate Boeckman.

“You don’t even gotta aim it,” Schwartz said. “Just throw it up there and hope they go get it. And most of the time they do go get it.”

Boeckman nearly hauled in a Hail Mary on the last play of the half, but instead the lead remained at 21-0.

Minster’s halftime was dark – both figuratively and literally – as the lights went out for the marching band’s glow-in-the-dark Script ‘Cats. But after the lights came back on, it somehow got even darker for Minster.

Langenkamp broke a tackle and sprinted 62 yards to extend the lead to 28-0. Even when Minster’s homecoming king Tyler Bergman scored on a 39-yard catch, it felt more like good mojo for next week than a viable comeback.

That is until Minster’s Ty Hein recovered an onside kick, and Taylor Fancher scored six more points on a two-yard rush. St. Henry, leading 28-12, went three-and-out, and Minster picked up a first down on the final play of the third quarter. The Cats had hope. But however many of their nine lives they still had, all died on one play.

Kaylor saw Bergman breaking open across the middle and uncorked, but Langenkamp extended, picked off the pass, and jogged 33 yards to the end zone to seal the deal on the first play of the fourth quarter.

“Our quarterback made the exact right read,” Whiting said. “[Langenkamp] just made a great play … He was buried in the line of scrimmage, and then sprinted backward and jumped … that kid just made a great play.”

He later scored a 67-yarder untouched, and backup QB Clay Niekamp wrapped it up with a rushing touchdown.

The 48-12 win will certainly put Coldwater (6-2) on notice as they visit St. Henry next week. If St. Henry and Minster both win, the ‘Skins could snag a share of the conference title.

So are they rooting for Minster next week?

“I’m rooting for us,” Langenkamp said.