Athlete of the week: Senior QB battles injury to lead Wolves to second-half comeback

MENNO — The last thing Austin Herrboldt wanted to do was leave his team on senior night.

The quarterback for the Menno High School football team missed the second quarter on Friday night after suffering a deep bone bruise on his throwing elbow. But he eventually made his way back to the field to rally his team from 12 points down to beat Marion 40-38 in Menno.

“They wanted to take me to the hospital to get it checked out,” said Herrboldt, whose entire arm was numb after taking a hit in the first half. “It didn’t look too promising when they told me I wasn’t going to be able to go back in.

“When the movement came back in my fingers and I started to move my arm, we decided to try and test it out and if it didn’t hurt when I threw the ball, I would finish the game and get it checked out later.”

The plan worked out for the Wolves as Herrboldt threw three second-half touchdowns to come away with the victory. Herrboldt finished the night with 188 yards passing and four touchdowns. He also tallied 62 yards rushing and a touchdown.

For his effort, Herrboldt has been named The Daily Republic’s athlete of the week, an award voted on by the newspaper’s sports staff.

“He’s just a playmaker,” Menno coach Jason Pasco said. “We’ve had a lot of injuries and we’ve really had to rely on him quite a bit.”

The turning point of the game came late in the third quarter when Menno trailed 36-24 and had a fourth-and-10 at Marion’s 28-yard line. The Wolves do not have a field goal kicker on the roster and decided to go for the first down.

“We didn’t have a problem going for it there,” Pasco said. “We have a lot of faith in Austin. In a bad situation, he can make a play out of it.”

Herrboldt did just that, as nothing looked open on the play and the senior quarterback was forced to make something happen.

“I scrambled and the corner came up, so I threw it over the top,” Herrboldt said.

Wide receiver Dustin Lehr hauled in the pass and took it to the end zone for Menno and the Wolves cut the Bears’ lead to four.

“It was a huge play,” Herrboldt said. “Without that, it would have made for a long comeback.”

Herrboldt connected with Lehr again in the fourth quarter to complete in the rally and give the Wolves the victory.

On the season, Herrboldt is 36-of-91 passing for 586 yards and nine touchdowns and leads the team with 464 yards rushing with two touchdowns on the ground. He also leads the defense with 53 tackles on the year.

“We do a lot of stuff with him,” Pasco said. “He has great leadership, plus he backs it up with some pretty good physical talent.”

Menno (2-5) hopes to take the momentum from the come-from-behind victory into its last regular-season game against Scotland Friday in Scotland.

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