One of the most exciting days of the year, high school football returned to Warsaw Friday night as the Tigers hosted Michigan City at Fisher Field. The two teams found themselves engaged in a tough slugfest of a game, and in the end, the Warsaw defense held strong enough to open the campaign with a 20-7 win.
The victory was the 250th of head coach Bart Curtis’ Hall-of-Fame career.
“This is very special to me. A lot of kids and a lot of coaches have helped me get here,” he said after the game. “It’s been a long journey and it’s been a lot of fun.”
Michigan City began the game with the ball after a booming kick by Mason Smythe, putting the stout Tiger defense on the field to start things off. The unit started things off with a boom, as senior captain Cohen Heady blew up a running play on the first play of the game for a tackle for loss. The Wolves responded well to the opening punch, moving the ball well against Warsaw with an effective passing game. Quarterback Trinaston Hart looked good in the pocket, going through his progressions quickly and moving out of danger while finding open receivers to get the ball into the red zone.
In the red zone, the Warsaw defense was able to get going once more. On a second down at the five, senior linebacker Gavin Schultz came up huge with the first sack of the season to push the visitors back eleven yards. The Tigers would get stops on third and fourth down as well to keep Michigan City without a point after an impressive opening drive.
That brought up the Warsaw offense for the first time this season, and things took a little while to get going as the first three plays of the series featured penalties. Once the nonsense stopped, the Tigers began moving the ball in their signature fashion: hard-nosed running. After a series of short carries, things finally broke open for junior Quinton Brock, who hit the edge on a pitch and took it 45 yards and into the red zone. Three plays later, quarterback Drew Sullivan, playing his first game since last year’s season-ending injury, ran it in from three yards out to put the home team on the board.
The Wolves had an answer primed and ready. On the second play of the following drive, Hart found his receiver Jamin Harvell on a pass at the line of scrimmage and Harvell did the rest. Out running a series of Tiger defenders on the sideline, Harvell took it all the way to the house on a 64-yard score to tie things up 40 seconds after Warsaw had taken the lead.
Warsaw’s offense was unable to answer in the quick fashion the visitors had, going three-and-out on their following drive to give the ball right back as the second quarter got going. In a rhythm, Hart kept letting it fly, using another 40+ yard passing play to put his team back in the red zone in the blink of an eye. But, as was the case on the opening drive of the game, the Tiger defense bent but did not break, holding strong in the final chunk of the field to force a second turnover on downs.
“Our defense played very well at times, obviously there were a few mistakes that are correctable,” Curtis said. “Michigan City is a team with talent all over and I think we did a great job neutralizing it when we needed to.”

    Senior Tristan Wilson of Warsaw goes high to break up the pass attempt to Michigan City's Laurent Meekal during the second quarter...Nieter

After getting the ball back, a false start put the Tigers in some trouble. Facing a third and long at their own seven, Sullivan dropped back for his first pass of the game. It was a success, as he connected with senior Ethan Egolf for a 21-yard gain. On the following set of downs, Warsaw was faced with a fourth and short that Curtis and the offense decided to go for. Sullivan kept it himself and broke a tackle to reach the line to gain, keeping the drive alive. That would be as stressful as it got, as just two plays later, Brock got the ball once again and made the most of it, finding the sideline and taking it 65 yards for a score. After just two carries, his only two of the game, Brock had hit over 100 yards in the game and had given his team the lead once more.
“He’s heading into next week averaging 50 yards a carry so I probably should give him the ball a little bit more,” Curtis said. “And that will happen, I promise you that.”
Michigan City was able to pick up a couple of first downs the next time they had possession, but a big tackle for loss by Kam Kauffman and a sack by Grady Nelson ended the drive in its tracks. Warsaw punted on its final drive of the half, keeping the score at 14-7 as the two sides went to their respective locker rooms.
Getting the ball after halftime and looking to extend their lead, the Tigers went right back to work. On this drive, sophomore Michael Schenck got a majority of the work in the backfield, picking up a pair of first downs in the process. Moving the ball well, it looked as if another big carry by Brock would put Warsaw in good position to score once again, but a costly holding penalty would stall the drive out and result in a punt.
Getting the ball back, the Michigan City offense, which had primarily moved the ball using the pass in the first half, seemed to find something on the ground to begin the second. The Wolves burned Warsaw on a handful of carries of over 10 yards to move down the field. In addition to the ground game finding itself, a pair of questionable pass interference calls against the Tigers allowed the visitors’ drive to continue when it seemed as if the boys in black were going to get off the field.
With the Wolves creeping up on the red zone, a holding penalty backed them up and was exactly what the Tigers needed. The home team broke up three passes in a row to force their third turnover on downs. Not only did Michigan City come up empty on the possession, it took quite a bit of time, and now less than four minutes remained in the third quarter.
Holding onto the lead, the Tiger offense returned to the field and seemed content to burn the clock. Using a combination of Sullivan and Brody Duncan, who had established himself as the bell cow to this point, Warsaw methodically drove down the field, picking up a series of first downs while sending the game to the fourth quarter.
At the beginning of the final quarter, the Tigers faced a fourth down and a long one at the Michigan City 32 yard line. The team decided to go for it, and it paid off as Duncan was able to pick it up. The decision would end up working out tremendously for Warsaw, as the offense was able to inch the ball closer to the goal line, burning clock in the process. With six minutes remaining in the game, the Wolves were finally able to force a stop, but Smythe came in to nail a 20-yard field goal to make it a two-possession game.
Needing something and needing it soon, Hart forced a pass on the following possession and the route was jumped by Heady, who came up with an interception on the play. Getting right back to work, the offense burned some more clock before sending Smythe back out there for a 30 yarder to make it a 20-7 game with three minutes left.
Michigan City was unable to get anything on the board on their final possession, running out of time as Kauffman put the exclamation point on the victory with a sack on the final play of the game.
Brock led all rushers in the game with 114 yards. Sullivan added 58 and 21 yards passing while Duncan ran for 57. Warsaw committed eleven penalties for 110 yards in the game.
Warsaw (1-0) travels to Warren Central next Friday night.
“We were sloppy tonight with a few too many mistakes but we played awfully hard and when you do that on every snap, that can make up for some of the sloppiness,” Curtis said. “But that can get you beat when you’re going up against a team with enough talent.”