A famous Super Bowl play between the New York Giants and Buffalo Bills is known as "wide right."

For Warsaw and South Bend St. Joe, call it wide left.

Just like the Bills' Scott Norwood pushed his kick to the right to give the Giants the Super Bowl title in 1991, South Bend St. Joe's Peter Veldman's 37-yard field goal attempt sailed left and gave Warsaw a 24-21 win over the No. 10 team in Class 3A Friday at Fisher Field on homecoming night.

The win avenges a 43-0 loss to the Indians last year for Warsaw and puts the Tigers at 3-1 this year, their best start to a season since 1994 when they also began the campaign 3-1. The last time Warsaw won three straight games was in 1992 when it won the first four games of the season.

Warsaw was right with St. Joe a year ago before the Indians exploded in the second half for the big win a year ago.

But as everybody can tell this year, it is a different Tiger squad this year.

"A year ago we put our head down, and it is 43-0," Warsaw coach Phil Jensen said. "They (Warsaw) are different, they have changed."

It didn't always go Warsaw's way this year, including a fumble by Derrick Duncan at the 1-yard line in the third quarter. But the difference between this year and last is how the Tigers responded to any disappointment that occurred during the game.

"Adversity makes you stronger for things to come," Jensen said. "That is the way we have approached it. Maybe without all that adversity, we would not have hung on to win tonight. Maybe that is what has made us stronger and brought us closer together as a team."

Jose Esquivel, running behind Warsaw's huge and ever-improving offense line, ran for a career-high 190 yards.

"Jose is getting better every carry, and the line is getting better with every block," Jensen said. "Not only does Jose run hard on the inside yards, but he has that cut back ability to make the big plays happen."

Esquivel had that Barry Sanders-cutback ability going as well as some straight ahead up-the-middle toughness going on against the Indians.

With the score tied at 21-21 late in the fourth quarter, the Tigers went on an Esquivel-led drive that put the ball at the St. Joe 7-yard line. From there, Sam Wihebrink connected on a 25-yard field goal on fourth down with 1:37 remaining in the game.

The Indians then got possession of the ball and made the Tigers start to sweat. St. Joe, who had not completed a pass all night, got a 32-yard completion from Brian Lawler to Andy McBride to put the ball at the Warsaw 38 with a minute left.

From there, the Warsaw defense stiffened and St. Joe had to attempt a 37-yard field goal with eight seconds left, and Veldman's attempt went just left and sent a packed homecoming crowd into a frenzy.

"My approach to homecoming may be different than other coaches," Jensen said. "The job for the football team for homecoming is on Friday night. The kids did a great job this week in practice and stayed focused, they worked hard in practice, and it showed tonight."

St. Joe started the game with a bang when Ruel Taylor took the ball on the Indians' first possession and broke a few tackles en route to a 80-yard scoring jaunt for a 7-0 St. Joe lead. The crowd, which had cars backed up to Pope street well into the first quarter, had barely gotten into their seats when Taylor scored.

But Warsaw used the same time-consuming strategy that it used the previous week in an upset of Plymouth in its next drive - a 13-play drive that resulted in a 6-yard scoring strike from Andy Plank to Emerson Poort.

Two plays later, the Tigers recovered a St. Joe fumble on the 37-yard line. One play later, Esquivel ran left, changed his direction back to the right and sprinted around the outside for a 37-yard scoring play and a 14-7 Tiger lead.

Warsaw ran off 21 plays in the first quarter, while St. Joe had only four.

The Indians countered in the second quarter with a long drive of their own that resulted in Taylor's second score of the half, a 2-yard run and a 14-14 tie.

Warsaw untied things when Derrick Duncan broke a few tackles on just the Tigers' second play after Taylor's score for a long run, 46 yards, of his own and 21-14 advantage.

Lawler helped knot the score back up almost by himself by running on the final six of eight plays of an 11-play St. Joe drive and scored from five yards out, and it was 21-21.

For everything that happened in the first half, the big plays and the almost 400 yards of total offense combined by both teams, throw them out in the second half.

Both defenses got a little stingy in the second half, with the only score being Wihebrink's field goal.

"The defense stiffened in the second half and made big things happen," Jensen said. "It was good at halftime because it was still tied. All the bad things were behind us, and that is how the coaches and kids approached it. Our defense came out and dictated the whole half by holding them to three-and-out right off the bat."

The Indians' option game ran for 225 yards in the first half, including 123 by Taylor. But the Tigers' defense reached down within themselves and stood their ground in the second half, holding Taylor to seven yards, and St. Joe to only 34 rushing yards after halftime.

Duncan added 86 yards on the ground.

Warsaw (3-1) travels to Middlebury to take on Northridge Friday. [[In-content Ad]]