Tigers Rally To Beat No. 7 NorthWood
October 7, 2017 at 6:43 a.m.
Tigers Rally To Beat No. 7 NorthWood
By Dale [email protected]
His Tigers trailed NorthWood by 14 points at halftime, but rallied to beat the Panthers 29-28 at Andrews Field in Nappanee when Brad Seiss powered his way into the endzone for the game-winning two-point conversion.
It was Warsaw’s first win over NorthWood in a decade.
Jensen and the current Tigers certainly made Oct. 6, 2017 memorable, as they overcame a 28-10 deficit to beat the Class 4A No. 7 Panthers 31-28 at Fisher Field Friday night in the final home game of the regular season.
“Wow. Unbelievable,” said an excited Jensen following Friday’s win, which tied him with George Fisher with a program-best 103 victories.
Fisher tallied a record of 103-95-15 in 26 seasons with the Tigers from 1926-51, and Warsaw has played on a field – albeit multiple locations – named after him for decades.
Jensen is now 103-83 in his 18th season with the Tigers and 132-95 in his 22nd season overall.
“Before the game, we talked about 17 years ago tonight was the night we went up to NorthWood and we were down 14-0 at halftime and came back to win in overtime,” said Jensen.
“Seventeen years to the day ... and we talked about how that catapulted us into the playoffs against Penn, and we almost beat the (eventual) state champion, and it catapulted us into the next year and an undefeated season and an overtime battle with Snider in the sectional,” said Jensen. “This is that is that kind of win, and I’m just so proud of them.”
Friday’s victory extended Warsaw’s win streak to three games and improved the Tigers to 5-3 overall and 4-2 in the Northern Lakes Conference, while NorthWood fell to 5-3 and 3-3.
It was the Tigers’ first win over NorthWood since 2013.
“It wasn’t meant to be tonight for the Panthers, and there were some plays that proved that,” said NorthWood coach Nate Andrews, who led the Panthers to a 14-1 record and a state runner-up finish a year ago.
Trailing 28-10 in the third quarter, Warsaw cut NorthWood’s advantage to four points with seven-yard touchdown runs from senior quarterback Tristan Larsh and junior running back Bryce Garner.
The Tigers, whose only other lead in the game was 3-0 after a 33-yard Harrison Mevis field goal early in the second quarter, scored the game-winning touchdown with 2:25 remaining in the contest when Larsh connected with classmate Zach Riley on a 24-yard pass.
Larsh was scrambling to his left, released the ball with a defender in his face and then took a big hit from a NorthWood defender.
When the 6-foot-2, 200-pound Larsh got up off the turf, Riley was in the endzone celebrating.
“It was supposed to be a 22 post,” Riley said of the play call that produced the game-winning touchdown. “We were in bunch set, so the two outside receivers do posts and I do a wheel.
“I’m running my wheel, and I see Tristan fleeing out toward the sideline, so I just break off my route, turn toward the corner of the endzone and it’s right there. He put it right on the spot.”
Riley finished the game with six catches for 75 yards.
In a gameplan designed to keep the ball away from NorthWood’s quick-strike offense, Larsh rushed for 131 yards and two touchdowns on 29 carries, while Garner tallied 122 yards and a score on 24 carries.
Larsh completed 8 of 15 passes for 84 yards.
“He just keeps working, he keeps believing,” Jensen said of Larsh. “He trusts his teammates. He trusts his coaches.
“I’m really proud of all of them. How about our offensive line? How about Bryce Garner? Last week Bryce got a lot of the hard yards and that allowed Tristan to gash them outside. This week they’re sitting on the edges waiting for Tristan, and Bryce Garner and our offensive line just take it right at them.
“It seemed like we had the ball for a long time, and the more you keep the ball out of NorthWood’s hands the better it helps the defense. And how about our defense stepping up after we gave up the score in the second half and holding them while we clawed our way back in? Just a tremendous team effort.”
In the 48-minute game, Warsaw had nearly 33 minutes of possession.
The Panthers scored three offensive touchdowns, and the longest of the three drives was six plays.
NorthWood’s defense scored a 35-yard touchdown when Nic Bontrager wrestled the ball away from Larsh and ran it to paydirt, giving the Panthers a 14-3 lead at the time.
In total yards of offense, the Tigers outgained NorthWood 335-272.
NorthWood’s Landen Gessinger completed 8 of 9 passes for 108 yards and also carried the ball 13 times for 54 yards.
Brayton Yoder led the Panthers with 66 rushing yards and two scores on 10 carries, while Bronson Yoder had 44 yards on four carries.
NorthWood’s DeAndre Smart caught four passes for 79 yards.
With momentum on their side, the Tigers close the regular season Friday with a trip to Dunlap to play the previously unbeaten Concord Minutemen.
Concord, who was ranked No. 3 in the latest Class 5A poll, fell 28-21 Friday to 4A No. 5 Northridge.
“We’ve talked for weeks now about mentality,” said Jensen. “It’s not what happens to you, it’s how you respond to it. These kids are showing that they’re willing and ready to respond to anything negative that happens, and they’re also responding to the momentum and the positive that happens.”
WARSAW 31, NORTHWOOD 28
NW 0 22 6 0 — 28
W 0 10 14 7 — 31
NW W
1st downs 12 23
Rushing yds 164 251
Passing yds 108 84
Comp-Att-Int 9-10-0 8-15-1
Total yds 272 335
Fumbles/lost 1/1 1/1
Penalties/yds 10/85 4/45
Punts/Avg 4/42 3/26
Second Quarter
W – Harrison Mevis 33 FG 8:25, 3-0
NW – Brayton Yoder 55 run (conversion failed) 7:54, 6-3
NW – Nic Bontrager 35 fumble return (Brayton Yoder conversion run) 6:09, 14-3
W – Tristan Larsh 4 run (Mevis kick) 2:49, 14-10
NW – Brayton Yoder 1 run (Bronson Yoder conversion run) :58, 22-10
Third Quarter
NW – Bronson Yoder 13 run (conversion failed) 9:29, 28-10
W – Larsh 7 run (Mevis kick) 6:18, 28-17
W – Bryce Garner 7 run (Mevis kick) 4:53, 28-24
Fourth Quarter
W – Larsh 24 pass to Zach Riley (Mevis kick) 2:25, 31-28
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — NorthWood, Brayton Yoder 10-66, Landen Gessinger 13-54, Bronson Yoder 4-44; Warsaw, Larsh 29-131, Garner 24-122, Riley 1-(-2)
Passing — NorthWood, Gessinger 9-10-108, 0 TD, 0 INT; Warsaw, Larsh 8-15-84, 1 TD, 1 INT
Receiving — NorthWood, DeAndre Smart 4-79, Bronson Yoder 2-19, Brayton Yoder 2-6, Payton Bear 1-4; Warsaw, Riley 6-75, Luke Adamiec 1-10, Eli Owen 1-(-1)
Records: NorthWood 5-3 (3-3 NLC), Warsaw 5-3 (4-2 NLC)
His Tigers trailed NorthWood by 14 points at halftime, but rallied to beat the Panthers 29-28 at Andrews Field in Nappanee when Brad Seiss powered his way into the endzone for the game-winning two-point conversion.
It was Warsaw’s first win over NorthWood in a decade.
Jensen and the current Tigers certainly made Oct. 6, 2017 memorable, as they overcame a 28-10 deficit to beat the Class 4A No. 7 Panthers 31-28 at Fisher Field Friday night in the final home game of the regular season.
“Wow. Unbelievable,” said an excited Jensen following Friday’s win, which tied him with George Fisher with a program-best 103 victories.
Fisher tallied a record of 103-95-15 in 26 seasons with the Tigers from 1926-51, and Warsaw has played on a field – albeit multiple locations – named after him for decades.
Jensen is now 103-83 in his 18th season with the Tigers and 132-95 in his 22nd season overall.
“Before the game, we talked about 17 years ago tonight was the night we went up to NorthWood and we were down 14-0 at halftime and came back to win in overtime,” said Jensen.
“Seventeen years to the day ... and we talked about how that catapulted us into the playoffs against Penn, and we almost beat the (eventual) state champion, and it catapulted us into the next year and an undefeated season and an overtime battle with Snider in the sectional,” said Jensen. “This is that is that kind of win, and I’m just so proud of them.”
Friday’s victory extended Warsaw’s win streak to three games and improved the Tigers to 5-3 overall and 4-2 in the Northern Lakes Conference, while NorthWood fell to 5-3 and 3-3.
It was the Tigers’ first win over NorthWood since 2013.
“It wasn’t meant to be tonight for the Panthers, and there were some plays that proved that,” said NorthWood coach Nate Andrews, who led the Panthers to a 14-1 record and a state runner-up finish a year ago.
Trailing 28-10 in the third quarter, Warsaw cut NorthWood’s advantage to four points with seven-yard touchdown runs from senior quarterback Tristan Larsh and junior running back Bryce Garner.
The Tigers, whose only other lead in the game was 3-0 after a 33-yard Harrison Mevis field goal early in the second quarter, scored the game-winning touchdown with 2:25 remaining in the contest when Larsh connected with classmate Zach Riley on a 24-yard pass.
Larsh was scrambling to his left, released the ball with a defender in his face and then took a big hit from a NorthWood defender.
When the 6-foot-2, 200-pound Larsh got up off the turf, Riley was in the endzone celebrating.
“It was supposed to be a 22 post,” Riley said of the play call that produced the game-winning touchdown. “We were in bunch set, so the two outside receivers do posts and I do a wheel.
“I’m running my wheel, and I see Tristan fleeing out toward the sideline, so I just break off my route, turn toward the corner of the endzone and it’s right there. He put it right on the spot.”
Riley finished the game with six catches for 75 yards.
In a gameplan designed to keep the ball away from NorthWood’s quick-strike offense, Larsh rushed for 131 yards and two touchdowns on 29 carries, while Garner tallied 122 yards and a score on 24 carries.
Larsh completed 8 of 15 passes for 84 yards.
“He just keeps working, he keeps believing,” Jensen said of Larsh. “He trusts his teammates. He trusts his coaches.
“I’m really proud of all of them. How about our offensive line? How about Bryce Garner? Last week Bryce got a lot of the hard yards and that allowed Tristan to gash them outside. This week they’re sitting on the edges waiting for Tristan, and Bryce Garner and our offensive line just take it right at them.
“It seemed like we had the ball for a long time, and the more you keep the ball out of NorthWood’s hands the better it helps the defense. And how about our defense stepping up after we gave up the score in the second half and holding them while we clawed our way back in? Just a tremendous team effort.”
In the 48-minute game, Warsaw had nearly 33 minutes of possession.
The Panthers scored three offensive touchdowns, and the longest of the three drives was six plays.
NorthWood’s defense scored a 35-yard touchdown when Nic Bontrager wrestled the ball away from Larsh and ran it to paydirt, giving the Panthers a 14-3 lead at the time.
In total yards of offense, the Tigers outgained NorthWood 335-272.
NorthWood’s Landen Gessinger completed 8 of 9 passes for 108 yards and also carried the ball 13 times for 54 yards.
Brayton Yoder led the Panthers with 66 rushing yards and two scores on 10 carries, while Bronson Yoder had 44 yards on four carries.
NorthWood’s DeAndre Smart caught four passes for 79 yards.
With momentum on their side, the Tigers close the regular season Friday with a trip to Dunlap to play the previously unbeaten Concord Minutemen.
Concord, who was ranked No. 3 in the latest Class 5A poll, fell 28-21 Friday to 4A No. 5 Northridge.
“We’ve talked for weeks now about mentality,” said Jensen. “It’s not what happens to you, it’s how you respond to it. These kids are showing that they’re willing and ready to respond to anything negative that happens, and they’re also responding to the momentum and the positive that happens.”
WARSAW 31, NORTHWOOD 28
NW 0 22 6 0 — 28
W 0 10 14 7 — 31
NW W
1st downs 12 23
Rushing yds 164 251
Passing yds 108 84
Comp-Att-Int 9-10-0 8-15-1
Total yds 272 335
Fumbles/lost 1/1 1/1
Penalties/yds 10/85 4/45
Punts/Avg 4/42 3/26
Second Quarter
W – Harrison Mevis 33 FG 8:25, 3-0
NW – Brayton Yoder 55 run (conversion failed) 7:54, 6-3
NW – Nic Bontrager 35 fumble return (Brayton Yoder conversion run) 6:09, 14-3
W – Tristan Larsh 4 run (Mevis kick) 2:49, 14-10
NW – Brayton Yoder 1 run (Bronson Yoder conversion run) :58, 22-10
Third Quarter
NW – Bronson Yoder 13 run (conversion failed) 9:29, 28-10
W – Larsh 7 run (Mevis kick) 6:18, 28-17
W – Bryce Garner 7 run (Mevis kick) 4:53, 28-24
Fourth Quarter
W – Larsh 24 pass to Zach Riley (Mevis kick) 2:25, 31-28
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — NorthWood, Brayton Yoder 10-66, Landen Gessinger 13-54, Bronson Yoder 4-44; Warsaw, Larsh 29-131, Garner 24-122, Riley 1-(-2)
Passing — NorthWood, Gessinger 9-10-108, 0 TD, 0 INT; Warsaw, Larsh 8-15-84, 1 TD, 1 INT
Receiving — NorthWood, DeAndre Smart 4-79, Bronson Yoder 2-19, Brayton Yoder 2-6, Payton Bear 1-4; Warsaw, Riley 6-75, Luke Adamiec 1-10, Eli Owen 1-(-1)
Records: NorthWood 5-3 (3-3 NLC), Warsaw 5-3 (4-2 NLC)
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