Second-Half Surge Lifts Tigers Over Chesterton
October 28, 2017 at 6:48 a.m.
Second-Half Surge Lifts Tigers Over Chesterton
By Dale [email protected]
In a Class 6A Sectional 2 high school football semifinal at Fisher Field, the Tigers overcame a dismal first-half offensive performance by scoring 24 unanswered points en route to a 26-16 victory over the Chesterton Trojans.
The win, which improved the Tigers to 6-4 and punched their ticket to the sectional finals against No. 4 Penn, seemed fairly unlikely at halftime.
Warsaw had -9 yards of total offense and trailed the Trojans 16-2 after two quarters of play.
The second half, however, was an entirely different story.
Chesterton (4-6) fumbled the ball on the first play from scrimmage in the third quarter, and the Tigers pounced on the ball and the opportunity.
Warsaw turned the turnover into a six-play, 18-yard drive, capped off by a 2-yard Tristan Larsh touchdown run.
Chesterton fumbled again on the second play of its next drive, leading to a four-play, 17-yard drive that culminated in a 3-yard touchdown plunge by senior Will McGarvey.
The turnover trend continued for the Trojans, as Warsaw sophomore Blake Marsh made the first of his two interceptions on the third play of Chesterton’s next possession.
The Tigers capitalized on the situation and highlighted it with a 7-yard McGarvey touchdown run, giving them a 23-16 lead with 2:14 remaining in the third quarter.
Chesterton gift-wrapped another opportunity for the hosts, fumbling the ball away again on the second play of its next possession, which Warsaw turned into a 22-yard Harrison Mevis field goal with 10:19 remaining in the game.
In their first eight offensive plays of the second half, the Trojans turned the ball over four times, leading to 24 points for the Tigers.
All told, Chesterton committed six turnovers in the second half – three fumbles, two interceptions by Marsh, and a pick by junior Trenton Sands.
“We talked at halftime about onside kicking, but we knew they’d be waiting for an onside kick, so we said ‘let’s kick it into the endzone and make something happen defensively, which we’ve done a lot this season – especially in the second half,’” said Warsaw coach Phil Jensen, who became the program’s all-time winningest coach with his 104th win at the helm of the Tigers.
“The key was we turned the turnovers into touchdowns. That was big.”
The Tigers fumbled the ball away four times themselves and only tallied 103 yards of total offense in the win.
As Jensen said, the key was capitalizing on Chesterton’s miscues.
“We told them we gotta belive in what we do, and we gotta get back to what we do,” Jensen said when asked what his halftime message was to the players.
“I asked Will (McGarvey) if he was ready to carry it, and he responded. Tristan (Larsh) made some good reads.
“The whole first half just wasn’t right ... I don’t know how else to say it. How many games have you ever seen that started with safeties on the first two possessions? The whole first half was just out of whack for whatever reason, but our kids have been tough all year and they fought through self-inflicted adversity and adversity that other teams have given us. They came out to play in the second half.”
In the Tigers’ previous home game they rallied from a 28-10 deficit to beat state power NorthWood 31-28, a win that tied Jensen with George Fisher atop the program’s list for coaching wins.
Following Friday’s contest, Warsaw’s players, coaches and cheerleaders posed for a picture under the scoreboard, which had the time set to 1:04 in recognition of Jensen’s number of wins with the Tigers.
Jensen, who shrugged off the personal accolades, said the moment was more special because it happened in the state tournament.
Before Jensen took over the program in 1996, Warsaw had never won a postseason game. The Tigers are still searching for their first sectional championship.
“The thing that makes it nice, and I wanted to get a picture of it, is it was a playoff game,” said Jensen, who is 104-84 in his 18th season at Warsaw and 133-96 in his 22nd year overall.
“When I came here 20 years ago, Warsaw had never won a playoff game. For that one that puts it over the hump to be a playoff game makes it something I’ll remember later on.”
Prior to coaching at Warsaw, Jensen was 29-12 in four seasons at Churubusco. His career with the Tigers has been two stints, as he stepped away for four years before returning in 2008.
“It means I’ve had a lot of really good players, and a lot of really good coaches, and tremendous support from the administration,” Jensen said of the milestone. “Not everybody always agrees with me, but I feel like we’ve always been supported, and I’m just really proud to be a part of it.”
McGarvey, returning from a foot injury that sidelined him for several games, led the Tigers with 77 yards and two touchdowns on 17 rushing attempts, while Larsh had zero yards on 19 carries after being sacked a number of times in the first half.
Larsh completed 4 of 11 pass attempts for 11 yards.
The Trojans tallied 198 yards of offense and were led by Cory Boren, who rushed for 64 yards on nine carries and completed 2 of 10 passes for 48 yards with two interceptions.
Zimmerman was 6 of 11 for 56 yards and had the two scoring strikes to Warren.
The sectional matchup with Penn will be the first time the Tigers and Kingsmen have met on the gridiron since 2012. The Tigers are 0-9 all-time against the Kingsmen.
Penn beat Warsaw 10-7 on Oct. 27, 2000 after the Tigers were called for a roughing-the-holder penalty on a field goal attempt.
The Kingsmen went on to cruise to the state championship that season.
Jensen is a 1983 Penn graduate and played tight end for legendary coach Chris Geesmen.
“I’m more than happy to go back home with these guys from my new home, and we’ll do whatever we can do,” said Jensen. “The thing I told them was ‘dare to believe.’ I can tell you already you’ll hear me next Friday saying how proud I am of them no matter what happens.”
WARSAW 26, CHESTERTON 16
C 2 14 0 0 — 16
W 2 0 21 3 — 26
C W
1st downs 10 12
Rushing yds 94 92
Passing yds 104 11
Comp-Att-Int 8-21-3 4-11-0
Total yds 198 103
Fumbles/lost 4/3 4/4
Penalties/yds 8/57 7/60
Punts/Avg 3/15 4/31
First Quarter
C – Safety (Warsaw snaps punt out of end zone) 9:33, 2-0
W – Safety (blocked punt attempt goes out of endzone) 7:28, 2-2
Second Quarter
C – Andrew Zimmerman 19 pass to Jake Warren (Harley Lohmeyer kick) 2:28, 9-2
C – Zimmerman 13 pass to Warren (Lohmeyer kick) :17, 16-2
Third Quarter
W – Tristan Larsh 2 run (Harrison Mevis kick) 8:38, 16-9
W – Will McGarvey 2 run (Mevis kick) 7:24, 16-16
W – McGarvey 7 run (Mevis kick) 2:14, 23-16
Fourth Quarter
W – Mevis 22 FG 10:19, 26-16
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — Chesterton, Cory Boren 9-64, Anthony Frencl 6-24, Louie Razo 12-23, Zimmerman 7-(-17); Warsaw, McGarvey 17-77, Bryce Garner 5-18, Larsh 19-0, Josh West 1-(-3)
Passing — Chesterton, Zimmerman 6-11-56, 2 TDs, 1 INT, Boren 2-10-48, 0 TD, 2 INTs; Warsaw, Larsh 4-11-11, 0 TD, 0 INT
Receiving — Chesterton, Braden Corzan 1-39, Warren 2-32, Zachary Zimmerman 2-18, Razo 1-9, Frencl 1-6; Warsaw, Zach Riley 2-10, Blake Marsh 2-1
Records: Warsaw 6-4, Warsaw Chesterton 4-6
In a Class 6A Sectional 2 high school football semifinal at Fisher Field, the Tigers overcame a dismal first-half offensive performance by scoring 24 unanswered points en route to a 26-16 victory over the Chesterton Trojans.
The win, which improved the Tigers to 6-4 and punched their ticket to the sectional finals against No. 4 Penn, seemed fairly unlikely at halftime.
Warsaw had -9 yards of total offense and trailed the Trojans 16-2 after two quarters of play.
The second half, however, was an entirely different story.
Chesterton (4-6) fumbled the ball on the first play from scrimmage in the third quarter, and the Tigers pounced on the ball and the opportunity.
Warsaw turned the turnover into a six-play, 18-yard drive, capped off by a 2-yard Tristan Larsh touchdown run.
Chesterton fumbled again on the second play of its next drive, leading to a four-play, 17-yard drive that culminated in a 3-yard touchdown plunge by senior Will McGarvey.
The turnover trend continued for the Trojans, as Warsaw sophomore Blake Marsh made the first of his two interceptions on the third play of Chesterton’s next possession.
The Tigers capitalized on the situation and highlighted it with a 7-yard McGarvey touchdown run, giving them a 23-16 lead with 2:14 remaining in the third quarter.
Chesterton gift-wrapped another opportunity for the hosts, fumbling the ball away again on the second play of its next possession, which Warsaw turned into a 22-yard Harrison Mevis field goal with 10:19 remaining in the game.
In their first eight offensive plays of the second half, the Trojans turned the ball over four times, leading to 24 points for the Tigers.
All told, Chesterton committed six turnovers in the second half – three fumbles, two interceptions by Marsh, and a pick by junior Trenton Sands.
“We talked at halftime about onside kicking, but we knew they’d be waiting for an onside kick, so we said ‘let’s kick it into the endzone and make something happen defensively, which we’ve done a lot this season – especially in the second half,’” said Warsaw coach Phil Jensen, who became the program’s all-time winningest coach with his 104th win at the helm of the Tigers.
“The key was we turned the turnovers into touchdowns. That was big.”
The Tigers fumbled the ball away four times themselves and only tallied 103 yards of total offense in the win.
As Jensen said, the key was capitalizing on Chesterton’s miscues.
“We told them we gotta belive in what we do, and we gotta get back to what we do,” Jensen said when asked what his halftime message was to the players.
“I asked Will (McGarvey) if he was ready to carry it, and he responded. Tristan (Larsh) made some good reads.
“The whole first half just wasn’t right ... I don’t know how else to say it. How many games have you ever seen that started with safeties on the first two possessions? The whole first half was just out of whack for whatever reason, but our kids have been tough all year and they fought through self-inflicted adversity and adversity that other teams have given us. They came out to play in the second half.”
In the Tigers’ previous home game they rallied from a 28-10 deficit to beat state power NorthWood 31-28, a win that tied Jensen with George Fisher atop the program’s list for coaching wins.
Following Friday’s contest, Warsaw’s players, coaches and cheerleaders posed for a picture under the scoreboard, which had the time set to 1:04 in recognition of Jensen’s number of wins with the Tigers.
Jensen, who shrugged off the personal accolades, said the moment was more special because it happened in the state tournament.
Before Jensen took over the program in 1996, Warsaw had never won a postseason game. The Tigers are still searching for their first sectional championship.
“The thing that makes it nice, and I wanted to get a picture of it, is it was a playoff game,” said Jensen, who is 104-84 in his 18th season at Warsaw and 133-96 in his 22nd year overall.
“When I came here 20 years ago, Warsaw had never won a playoff game. For that one that puts it over the hump to be a playoff game makes it something I’ll remember later on.”
Prior to coaching at Warsaw, Jensen was 29-12 in four seasons at Churubusco. His career with the Tigers has been two stints, as he stepped away for four years before returning in 2008.
“It means I’ve had a lot of really good players, and a lot of really good coaches, and tremendous support from the administration,” Jensen said of the milestone. “Not everybody always agrees with me, but I feel like we’ve always been supported, and I’m just really proud to be a part of it.”
McGarvey, returning from a foot injury that sidelined him for several games, led the Tigers with 77 yards and two touchdowns on 17 rushing attempts, while Larsh had zero yards on 19 carries after being sacked a number of times in the first half.
Larsh completed 4 of 11 pass attempts for 11 yards.
The Trojans tallied 198 yards of offense and were led by Cory Boren, who rushed for 64 yards on nine carries and completed 2 of 10 passes for 48 yards with two interceptions.
Zimmerman was 6 of 11 for 56 yards and had the two scoring strikes to Warren.
The sectional matchup with Penn will be the first time the Tigers and Kingsmen have met on the gridiron since 2012. The Tigers are 0-9 all-time against the Kingsmen.
Penn beat Warsaw 10-7 on Oct. 27, 2000 after the Tigers were called for a roughing-the-holder penalty on a field goal attempt.
The Kingsmen went on to cruise to the state championship that season.
Jensen is a 1983 Penn graduate and played tight end for legendary coach Chris Geesmen.
“I’m more than happy to go back home with these guys from my new home, and we’ll do whatever we can do,” said Jensen. “The thing I told them was ‘dare to believe.’ I can tell you already you’ll hear me next Friday saying how proud I am of them no matter what happens.”
WARSAW 26, CHESTERTON 16
C 2 14 0 0 — 16
W 2 0 21 3 — 26
C W
1st downs 10 12
Rushing yds 94 92
Passing yds 104 11
Comp-Att-Int 8-21-3 4-11-0
Total yds 198 103
Fumbles/lost 4/3 4/4
Penalties/yds 8/57 7/60
Punts/Avg 3/15 4/31
First Quarter
C – Safety (Warsaw snaps punt out of end zone) 9:33, 2-0
W – Safety (blocked punt attempt goes out of endzone) 7:28, 2-2
Second Quarter
C – Andrew Zimmerman 19 pass to Jake Warren (Harley Lohmeyer kick) 2:28, 9-2
C – Zimmerman 13 pass to Warren (Lohmeyer kick) :17, 16-2
Third Quarter
W – Tristan Larsh 2 run (Harrison Mevis kick) 8:38, 16-9
W – Will McGarvey 2 run (Mevis kick) 7:24, 16-16
W – McGarvey 7 run (Mevis kick) 2:14, 23-16
Fourth Quarter
W – Mevis 22 FG 10:19, 26-16
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — Chesterton, Cory Boren 9-64, Anthony Frencl 6-24, Louie Razo 12-23, Zimmerman 7-(-17); Warsaw, McGarvey 17-77, Bryce Garner 5-18, Larsh 19-0, Josh West 1-(-3)
Passing — Chesterton, Zimmerman 6-11-56, 2 TDs, 1 INT, Boren 2-10-48, 0 TD, 2 INTs; Warsaw, Larsh 4-11-11, 0 TD, 0 INT
Receiving — Chesterton, Braden Corzan 1-39, Warren 2-32, Zachary Zimmerman 2-18, Razo 1-9, Frencl 1-6; Warsaw, Zach Riley 2-10, Blake Marsh 2-1
Records: Warsaw 6-4, Warsaw Chesterton 4-6
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