It was hardly a work of art, but Warsaw's varsity football team drew up a season-opening win over visiting Columbia City Friday night.

After an emotional ceremony retiring fallen Marine and former Tiger standout David Fribley's No. 77 painted an emotional backdrop, Warsaw did enough things right in an ugly game to pull out a 21-7 victory.

Typical of season openers, Friday's contest was filled with penalties, turnovers and various miscues.

Warsaw coughed up the ball seven times - fumbling it away three times - and had three Daniel Erickson passes picked off by the Eagle defense.

The important thing for the Tigers was that Columbia City couldn't convert on Warsaw's turnovers, as the Eagles themselves fumbled three times - with the Tigers pouncing on it twice - and had three Kevin Eames pass attempts picked off.

"There's no substitute for a real game," said Warsaw coach Phil Jensen, now 49-26 with Warsaw as he starts his eighth year. "It shows you what you need to get better on. We had some great individual plays and some great team plays, but it wasn't a great game. The good thing is that that we did play hard the whole game."

Leading 21-7, the Tigers sacked Eames for a 6-yard loss, putting the Eagles in a 2nd-and-16 situation from Warsaw's 14, and then made an interception two plays later.

Failing to convert on the offensive end, it was the Tiger defense that rose to the occassion again, dropping Eagle tight end Tyler Ramsey back three yards on a 3rd-and-10 play from the Tiger 10. Eames followed that play up with an incomplete.

Warsaw senior defensive back Brandon Stogsdill ended Columbia City's next possession with an interception at the 2:56 mark of the fourth quarter, and then the Tigers ran the clock out on runs from senior fullback Tyler Colt before Erickson took a knee twice to finish the game.

"There were a lot of inexperienced kids out there," Jensen said. "One minute they look liked like varsity players, and the next minute they looked like a JV team, but hopefully we'll get through that. It just takes time."

Warsaw graduated 20-plus seniors from last year's team that advanced to the sectional championship for the first time in school history.

Erickson attempted but one pass a year ago. Last night - despite the three interceptions and finishing the game just 9 of 26 - he showed he can run Jensen's offense.

On several occassions, the 5-foot-11, 175-pound senior pulled off Houdini-like escapes from would be tacklers.

"A couple of times that wasn't drawn up," Jensen said of Erickson scrambling. "But he has the ability to do that. Ryan DeGeeter, Jared Scrafton and Greg Seiss were all 6-4 quarterbacks, he's just not gonna be that. He's gonna keep getting better. He's gonna be a pretty good quarterback for us before it's all over."

Erickson, who also punted, finished the game with 125 passing yards, including a 21-yard touchdown pass to classmate Adam Suchecki, who tipped the pass and caught it for the first score of the game with 8:40 remaining in the first half.

Warsaw scored its second touchdown of the game with 17 seconds left in the half when Erickson scampered in from seven yards out.

All totaled, Erickson finished his first start with 45 yards on 17 carries. Junior tailback Thomas Balestri added 69 yards on 17 carries with a touchdown, putting the Tigers up 21-0 with 7:19 remaining in the third when he barrelled in from five yards out.

After being held to 16 yards in the first half, Balestri broke out with a pair of 15-yarders and a 14-yard gain to set up his 5-yard touchdown trot.

Colt added five carries for 23 yards.

Suchecki led Warsaw's receivers with four catches for 53 yards, while Nate Miller caught two passes for 50 yards, including a 44-yard strike. Junior Antonio Castillo added two catches for 20 yards.

The visiting Eagles scored their lone touchdown of the game with 5:36 left in the third when hard-nosed junior running back Andy Straub pounded his way in from a yard out to cap off a drive that started with a 67-yard run from senior Grant Larsen.

Eames finished the game 11 of 35 for 85 yards, while Larsen led the team in rushing with his 67 yards. Straub finished with 10 carries for 40 yards.

"All the good and all the bad, half the teams in the state want to be us," Jensen said of the win. We know what we need to work on, and we need to get better in a real hurry."

Warsaw travels next Friday to 5A No. 10 Homestead, a 56-13 winner over Huntington North last night.

WARSAW 21, COLUMBIA CITY 7

Col. City (0-1) 0 0 7 0 - 7

Warsaw (1-0) 0 14 7 0 - 0

CC W

First downs 9 15

Rushing yards 112 137

Passing yards 85 125

Comp.-Att.-Int. 11-35-3 9-26-3

Total offense 197 262

Fumbles/lost 3/2 7/3

Punts/avg. 5-38.8 5-38.8

Penalties/yards 7-60 5-47

Scoring

Second Quarter

W - Daniel Erickson 21 pass to Adam Suchecki (Jeremy Sharp kick) 8:40, 7-0

W - Erickson 7 run (Sharp kick) :17, 14-0

Third Quarter

W - Thomas Balestri 5 run (Sharp kick) 7:19, 21-0

CC - Andy Straub 1 run (Travis Preston kick) 5:36, 21-7

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing - Warsaw, Balestri 17-69, Erickson 17-45, Tyler Colt 5-23; Col. City, Straub 10-40, Adam Macy 6-19, Kevin Eames 4-(-)23, Landon Rohrer 3-12, Grant Larsen 1-67, Tyler Ramsey 1-(-)3

Passing - Warsaw, Erickson 9-26-125, 3 INT, 1 TD; Col. City, Eames 11-35-85, 3 INT

Receiving - Warsaw, Suchecki 4-53, Nate Miller 2-50, Antonio Castillo 2-20, Colt 1-2; Col. City, Larsen 5-39, Blane Culp 3-56, Ramsey 2-(-)3, Nathan Stetzel 1-(-)7 [[In-content Ad]]