WINONA LAKE - Having played for Warsaw himself, Ben Barkey knows how special wins are over rival Wawasee.

Tuesday's boys golf match at Stonehenge was a sweet reminder, and the first-year Tiger coach was all smiles for good reason.

With three players shooting 40 or lower on a day as windy as the winter is cold, the Tigers shot a 162 and won a three-way Northern Lakes Conference match over No. 2 Wawasee and NorthWood.

Wawasee, which finished fourth in the state a year ago and graduated just one player, struggled on Stonehenge's back nine, shot uncharacteristically high scores and finished with a 164. NorthWood shot a nine-hole team score of 199.

"This is huge for us," said Barkey, a 1997 Warsaw graduate who student taught at Wawasee last year, and whose wife teaches at NorthWood. "It's unbelievable what this is gonna do for our confidence. It's not over for us though, we won a tough one here tonight, but we come back Thursday and it's the same thing, we have to play well against Concord and Plymouth."

The wins over NorthWood and state-ranked Wawasee improved the Tigers to 13-2 overall and 5-0 in the NLC. Wawasee is now 14-2 overall, starting the season 13-0 but going 1-2 this week, and 5-1 in conference action. NorthWood fell to 2-10 and 0-5.

"We had a tough night," Wawasee coach Steve Coverstone said. "I can't tell you why we played so bad because I don't know why. We've got to get back to playing target golf. We had too many balls in the hazard, too many balls in the heather. We just didn't play particularly well."

While its bottom four golfers struggled, Wawasee's bright spot was again senior Stephen Conrad.

Conrad, who holds Wawasee's school record with a nine-hole score of 31 at South Shore, fired a round of 35, tallying three birdies along the way.

Joel Bickel shot 42 for the Warriors, while Josh Abrams shot 43, Darrin Cripe 44 and Evan Gerard 48.

While Wawasee had one outstanding score from Conrad, Warsaw's scorecard was filled with more consistent scores.

Ben Brodhead led the Tigers with 39, while Jake Brodhead and Chris Hanson fired 40s. Jon Clevenger added a 43, and lone senior Jeremy Nieter 44.

"We don't really have one outstanding player," Barkey said. "These kids are all just consistent. They didn't break down tonight, they were in the match mentally and they fought a good fight."

Trevor Shields led NorthWood with 42, while Cory Hepler shot 48, Adam Leeper 49, Scott Gerber 60 and Josh Heiser 61.

Warsaw and Wawasee will meet at least two more times this season, the first coming Saturday at South Shore in the NLC Match, and the next being June 7 at Stonehenge in the Warsaw Sectional.

The Tigers are in action again Thursday with NLC foes Concord and Plymouth, while Wawasee faces off against conference opponent Northridge Thursday.

WARSAW 162,

No. 2 WAWASEE 164, NORTHWOOD 199

Warsaw scores - Jake Brodhead 40, Ben Brodhead 39, Chris Hanson 40, Jeremy Nieter 44, Jon Clevenger 43

Wawasee scores - Stephen Conrad 35, Joel Bickel 42, Evan Gerard 48, Josh Abrams 43, Darrin Cripe 44

NorthWood scores - Cory Hepler 48, Adam Leeper 49, Trevor Shields 42, Scott Gerber 60, Josh Heiser 61

JV - Warsaw 189, Wawasee 191, NorthWood 207

Warsaw JV scores - Skyler Scott 44, Mark Manning 49, Austin Francalancia 48, Matt Smith 48, Chris Schenkel 40

Wawasee JV scores - Casey Wead 44, Tyler Rondeau 43, Derek Blanchard 48, Seth Cassel 56

NorthWood JV scores - Nate Taylor 64, Brad Abel 53, Nick Borden 55, Jordan Engler 50 [[In-content Ad]]