Cross-county rivals Warsaw and Wawasee met in Syracuse Friday night with the W Trophy on the line for the 39th time. The Tigers started off fast and never looked back, scoring 28 points in the first quarter on their way to a 56-6 win to remain perfect in Northern Lakes Conference play.
“You can bet that last year’s game (a 22-15 Warsaw win) came up a couple of times this week,” Warsaw head coach Bart Curtis remarked after the game. “I’m very pleased with our execution. I’m pleased that we settled down early and got right to business. We knew we were a little more experienced than them this year, so we wanted to take advantage of that. It really was two trophies for us tonight. We get to go home with the W trophy, and we stay alive in the NLC race.”
Warsaw wasted absolutely no time putting points on the board. A 20-yard kickoff return by Daylor Vilamaa gave the Tigers the ball at the 20 to start the game off. From there, the offense needed just one play to turn the good field position into points, as Quinton Brock broke one tackle on a run and had nothing but green grass in front of him, rushing for a 60-yard touchdown on the visitors’ first play from scrimmage. Just 14 seconds into the contest, Warsaw held a 7-0 lead.
The Warriors had trouble fielding the ball on the ensuing kickoff, resulting in the home side getting the ball at the five for their first drive of the game. After methodically moving the ball forward for the first three plays, Wawasee took a big risk going for it on fourth down at their own 15. It paid off for them, as Warrior quarterback Kaden Andrew kept the ball on a sneak to keep the drive alive.
Wawasee almost saw a big gain out of the backfield by Bradyn Pike a few plays later, but it was called back on a costly holding call. That resulted in the team going for it on fourth down in their own territory once again, and for the second time, they converted. That would be the last positive play of the drive however, as a fumble recovered by Warsaw’s Jayden Habegger to give the ball right back to the Tigers.
Working quickly once again after getting the ball at the Wawasee 20, this time it took four plays for Warsaw to find the end zone once again. From nine yards out, running back Tucker Reed made a nice juke in the open field on a pitch play to find the end zone and make it 14-0 seven minutes into the game.
The Wawasee drive that followed went nowhere. In fact, it went backwards, as the Warriors lost seven yards while going 3-and-out and were forced to punt from their own endzone. That resulted in the Tigers getting the ball in very favorable territory once again, needing just 35 yards to get into the end zone.
For the second time in the quarter, it took them just one play to get there. Dropping back to pass for the first time in the game, quarterback Drew Sullivan found a wide-open Ethan Egolf down field for a 35-yard score on the play-action pass.
Things went from bad to worse for the Warriors here, as the home side coughed it up for the second time in the game on the first play of the drive to give the ball right back to Warsaw inside the red zone. Sophomore Grady Nelson recovered it for the Tigers.

    Wawasee senior Reed Reidenbach looks for running room during Friday night's home game against Warsaw...Nieter

The following drive saw Brody Duncan getting in on the action for the first time for the visitors. He got a handful of carries as his team moved it down the field and was rewarded at the goal line, making it a 28-0 game with a two-yard scamper.
Another punt by Wawasee at the beginning of the second quarter gave the ball right back. The Warsaw offense just kept chugging along, as Brock took it 35 yards on the second play of the drive for his second score of the first half.
Wawasee was still unable to get anything going after getting the ball back, as the Warsaw defense continued to dominate with three tackles for loss on the following drive. This resulted in a punt that gave the visitors the ball just outside the red zone to continue the trend of outstanding field position. After a long carry by Evan Davis took the ball down to the one, Brock, now playing quarterback, made it a hat trick with a 1-yard score to make it 42-0.
A nice punt by Wawasee’s Reed Reidenbach after another tough possession by the home side gave Warsaw the ball at the other side of the 50 for just the second time in the game. It would only slow things down a bit. A 30-yard carry on fourth and one by Duncan set up Reed for his second touchdown of the night, an eleven-yard run that make it 49-0 with two and a half minutes left in the first half.
Getting the ball back with a minute left, it looked as if Warsaw was just going to let the clock run down. But having to run a pair of plays, Reed broke a pair of tackles on the second of the two, resulting in a 48-yard touchdown run with 20 seconds left to make it 56-0 at the half.
“We feel like we’ve got an adequate number of kids that know what to do with the football. It’s great when we can get them in the end zone that many times.”
With the clock running for the entirety of the second half, the Tigers picked up right where they left off, recovering a fumble on the first play of the second half to get the ball at the Wawasee 30. With second stringers playing both sides of the ball for the visitors, Wawasee was finally able to get its first stop of the game, halting the Tigers on 4th and two at the seven.
This gave some momentum for the home side, as Kassidy Carter ran for 40 yards on the first play of the drive. That was followed by a big run by Reidenbach that put Wawasee in opposing territory for the first time in the game. Pike’s 32-yard house call a play later finally put the Warriors on the board to make it 56-6.
Warsaw almost got those points immediately afterwards, as Daylon Fitzpatrick ran the ball 70 yards to the house on the very next play, but it was called back for an illegal block in the back. This sent things to the fourth quarter.
There was not much to report on here, as the 12 minutes ticked away without any more scores going on the board.
Warsaw (3-1, 2-0 NLC) has a massive contest against fellow 5A powerhouse Concord on the road next Friday, while Wawasee (0-4, 0-2 NLC) is on the road against Plymouth.
“Concord is a great football team. They know how to defend what we want to do offensively and on offense they are really, really good,” Curtis said. “They’ve got basically everybody back from last year and we’re going to have to play really well to come away with a win.”