Now THAT was a rivalry game: The September 29 gridiron clash between the Warsaw Tigers and the Wawasee Warriors felt like a rivalry game throughout the night, and not just during the Warriors’ customary success on its opening offensive drive.
Aside from a few runs, one of them being a touchdown, the Warriors stopped the perimeter game where the Tigers have been able to give other recent opponents fits.
The Wawasee football squad has been playing with a chip on its shoulder almost the entire season, and several Times-Union readers in this county would have liked to see a win, a victory note qualified with the word “moral” in front of it.
This Warrior squad is the most physical team they’ve put on the field since the middle of the prior decade, and their receivers made the most of open space from bubble screens and slants.
The on-field battle added to the energy of Warsaw’s Homecoming ceremonies, and although the Warriors’ side of the stands were far from full their fan base, especially their pink neon themed student section, was felt, and not just heard.
NFL projections already off to a stellar start: Not! First, I picked Atlanta as a division winner, AND one of the five weakest NFL squads in the same column.
Tsk tsk.
I also misjudged the Washington Commanders upon completion of the first quartile of the season.
The Bengals don’t look remotely like the AFC North Division champs I projected them to be. The Cincinnati offensive line is regressing in the early season, and the Ravens – the REAL Cleveland Browns – appear to be playing the best football among the North division teams in the first four regular season games.
Roger told you so: The Penalty Box column, Roger Grossman’s weekly Wednesday Times-Union contribution of sports editorial commentary, discussed the visual beauty of fall whose trappings swiftly lead to an end.
Three days into October the Warsaw Lady Tigers’ soccer side experienced an end to its solid season in a 4-3 loss to the Fort Wayne Northrup Bruins.
The game was exciting, but the Bruins’ athletes weren’t – visibly nor audibly - the most gracious winners.
Are they the most talented team currently surviving the Warsaw IHSAA Class 3A soccer sectional? Yes.
Will they win hearts among other fans from other schools during their side’s postseason run? No.
For what it’s worth, this is only the second time in ten seasons of PA announcing any sport at any level I had to announce, “Fans, please refrain from using profanity in the stands.”
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If you’re wondering what that garble typed above this line is, it’s one (of my three) cat’s attempt to stand over my keyboard to attempt drinking a small bit of milk after I stood up to leave my desk. I’m just leaving it there for you to see.
I live with and love my three cats, but when you experience the aggregate of their antics, it’s easy to understand why some people don’t like cats.
Baseball haves and have nots: The recently completed Major League Baseball season had – for the second time since 2019 - four teams with at least 100 losses.
There are people who talk about relegating MLB bottom feeders to lower-level leagues in the same manner it’s done in English Premiere League soccer. However, there is – between AAA minor league talent levels and MLB – a huge gap in collective talent.
Talk of relegation in MLB is a waste of breath. Be of good cheer, though, because most of this bad baseball took a considerably shorter amount of time to elapse each game than in seasons past.
Enjoy the week ahead, sports fans. There is so much going on. High school football will crown conference champions all over the state in its final regular season while high school volleyball teams and cross-country packs will begin their pursuit of postseason hardware.
The number of teams dressing for practice each Monday hereafter will exponentially diminish.